Mission: Rescue!
by Whisperwill
Summary: Twelve young cadets are kidnapped from Konohagakure's Ninja Academy, and it's up to a single cell of four ninja to rescue them.  Pre-Vol. 1.
1. Taken!

**Disclaimer: I don't own that wondrous manga/franchise called _Naruto_.**

**A/N: Originally completed on 12/25/10 (yes, you saw the correct date) as a Christmas present for my twin sister. I like to go right down to the wire. :) My longest story ever! Set before the manga began.**

**Rated T for depictions of graphic violence. Please _let me know_ if the rating should go up!**

**Mission: Rescue!**

Master Raido stood taking down names as Iruka waved the last of the stragglers through the Fire Gate. "That's the last of them," Iruka announced. Raido made a few more check marks on his paper and shook his head.

"Sure is. And you didn't even need the attendance list."

"All right!" bellowed Master Iruka so that the students scattered around could hear him. "That's the end of the training drill—"

"Field trip," one boy amended to his comrade with a grin.

"—so we're heading straight back to the Academy," Iruka went on. As the cadets reluctantly headed back, he added, "And I'd better see all of you back there. Anyone who plays hooky can stay after class doing pull-ups." Raido leaped on ahead of the boys and girls, and Iruka fell back to spur on any who were dilly-dallying. Jogging, running, or bouncing off buildings, the students and teachers made their way to the Academy. When Iruka caught up to the rest, he saw to his unease that the children were clustered in the playground in front of the Academy, and Raido was holding out a hand to ward them back. Immediately Iruka pushed his way to the front of the throng. "What is it?" he hissed.

"Something's not right," Raido muttered to him. "This place should be crawling with kids, but there's no one here." With a glance at the sun overhead, Iruka realized Raido was right. They had reached the Academy at recess time. Why weren't children swarming in the front yard?

Kamizuki Izumo pushed open the front door and rushed out of the building, seemingly disoriented. His wide eyes fell on the sensei, and he stumbled over to them. "Iruka . . . Raido . . ." He gulped and blurted out, "The Academy was attacked! The students were taken!" The men's mouths dropped open in horror, and the air filled with the children's gasps and cries.

"_What_?" Iruka yelled. "When? How? Who was—?"

"Hold it," Raido broke in, his voice tight. "We have to get these children home—now. Iruka, come with me. We'll make sure they get back safely. Izumo, let Lord Hokage know about this right away. Get the Anbu out here. This attack was probably part of a bigger plan, and we have to make sure no enemies are still within the gates."

"Right," Izumo muttered, and took off. Iruka and Raido turned to attempt to soothe the fearful cadets.

"Class is over for the day," Raido declared unnecessarily. "We're going to take you home—"

"My _brother_ was in there!" the Inuzuka girl screamed. Her shrill voice seemed to send the students close to panic. Before they could scatter or stampede, Iruka spoke quickly.

"Listen to me!" he shouted urgently. "We are _going_ to find those kids and _bring them back_. But right now, we have to make sure that you cadets are safe. Follow me and Master Raido. We're going to take all of you back to your homes." He and Raido set off double-time up the main thoroughfare, the children doing their best to keep up. Even though they made clones— one for Iruka and three for Raido—it still took an agonizingly long time to escort all of the cadets back home. "We hardly know more than you do," Iruka explained time and time again to anxious parents. "The shinobi are gathering now. As soon as we have more information, we'll let you know."

The two sensei joined the crowd of ninja in the heart of the village as soon as they were finished. Lord Hokage had called a meeting, and was in the middle of speaking. "The Black Ops have assured me that no enemy shinobi remain," he told them all in a raised voice. "The attack was sudden and precise, with a definite purpose. We have reason to believe that the ninja who attacked were waiting for an opportune moment like this one—when all the teachers but one were absent. How they knew this, I do not know. They may have even planted spies."

"Where were they from?" a shinobi in back called.

"I _told_ you, I didn't recognize their headbands," Izumo said, frustrated, from the Hokage's side. "It looked like it might've been a new insignia."

"And why _children_?" Master Iwashi demanded. "What _possible_ purpose can they serve?"

"We can only speculate at this point," the Third Hokage said heavily. "In any case, a team must be dispatched to find them as soon as possible."

"What if that's exactly what they want?" Hatake Kakashi spoke up for the first time. "Don't you think it's strange that a team of enemy shinobi infiltrate Konohagakure, and the only thing they do once inside is steal some preschoolers?" He shook his head. "The kids are likely bait to draw us away from our real purpose: protecting the village. Our nemeses could be mounting a huge attack as we speak." Glaring around impressively, he finished, "We can't let the kidnappers cloud our judgment. Our primary objective is the same as it's always been—_protect Konoha_."

Iruka strode forward. He wasn't going to let Kakashi have the last word. "With respect to Master Kakashi," he began, nodding to the masked ninja, "those children have always been every _bit_ as important as Konoha—because they _are_ Konoha."

Lord Sarutobi nodded at both of them. "Well said, Masters Kakashi and Iruka. I agree with you both." To the villagers around him, he promised, "We will not be slack with regards to the children. A rescue mission will be mounted immediately. Hatake Kakashi will lead a cell to find them." The elders Koharu and Homura nodded their agreement. Kakashi didn't seem very happy with the Hokage's choice, but he got right down to business.

"I want Genma and Kurenai on the team," he said, pointing them out. "Iruka, you're coming, too."

"Right!" Iruka said with a little sigh of relief. He had been hoping to be picked for the cell.

"Get your rations and supplies and meet me in front of the village in five minutes," ordered Master Kakashi, "or I'm leaving without you."

As the four ninja rushed away, they heard the Hokage continuing, "Furthermore, security will be improved. Extra shinobi will be stationed at all entrances to the village, and more of them will patrol the streets. No one will enter our borders uncontested. . ."


	2. Basically

True to her gender, Kurenai was the last to arrive at Kakashi's meeting spot; but she still made it within the time limit. Kakashi stood waiting, and he had a pack of dogs around him. Gesturing at them, he told the humans present, "These guys are here to speed up the search. Since our foes were using teleportation and we don't know where they were headed, smell will be one of our best allies." He nodded at the canines. "Run on ahead. Tell us if you find anything." The dogs obediently galloped away.

"How are we supposed to know where to look?" Genma pointed out, skeptical. "Are we running blind?"

"Basically," Kakashi replied bluntly. He executed the doppelganger jutsu to produce two clones. "Teleportation is a powerful jutsu, but like any jutsu, it has its limits," he explained for Kurenai and Iruka's benefit. "They couldn't have gone much farther than two or three kilometers before they would have had to make a landing and teleport again. I'm guessing they would have 'hopped' like that to wherever they were going, so that they could leave as little evidence to their passing as possible. But whatever they _did_ leave behind, we can spot and decipher. So let's start from a central point and move outward. If you see anything out of place, contact one of us by radio."

"We have to make the search as short as possible," Genma warned them. "I don't think they're about to kill any of those children, but we can't take our time based on that chance."


	3. Kill Them

In the kidnappers' secret meeting place, the children were sorted. Ten were deemed worthy of being trained. Two were not. "They know the rudiments of shinobi teaching," acknowledged a ninja so tall that his face was hidden from the children in darkness. "But neither of them can even perform a single ninjutsu. Kill them."

Wailing and struggling, two boys were dragged to a dark underground room. One, tall for his age, wore a grey gi and at least _looked_ somewhat like a ninja. The other had the death sentence written on him from the start. A little ragamuffin of a boy with no impressive talent just didn't belong in a shinobi world.


	4. Due Northwest

With his ability to produce a whopping six clones and his sharp eyes, Shiranui Genma was the first to come up with something in his search. He relayed the good news to the other three, and soon the masters and dogs were clustered around a depression in the grass. "You can't move twelve children without leaving _something_ behind," Genma pointed out.

"From the way the grass is bent, I'd say they were facing east," Kurenai surmised. Kakashi said nothing: he and his canines were busily sniffing the ground and air.

"They certainly didn't stay long," he observed. "There's almost no scent left. Except this." Delicately, he picked up a strand of grass with his thumb and forefinger.

"Grass?" Iruka asked, confused.

"It's not from around here," Kakashi explained of the blade in his hand.

"From Kusa, most likely," a pug dog commented.

"Then they were heading to Kusagakure?" Iruka asked. He was impatient for them to get a destination in mind and get going.

Genma surprised them all when he let out a little laugh. "Look at this. One of them got away—at least for a little while." Bent double, he was studying the ground where, by the trained eye, footprints could be discovered. "When they got their hands on him, they dragged him back this way—facing east again. Is that relevant?"

"East only leads straight back into the heart of the Land of Fire," Iruka said the obvious, frustrated.

"So they're facing east, they come from Kusa, and they're dragging twelve hostages along with them," Kakashi summarized the information. "Well, we can be pretty certain they weren't heading deeper into Konoha. And it would be too predictable for them to just go straight to Kusa." He sighed in thought and ran a hand over his mask. "They must have a base, but it could be anywhere."

"Kakashi!" barked a golden retriever from nearby. "They landed here, too!" Kakashi was at the dog's side in an instant. He scrutinized the ground while the retriever wagged her tail. "Looks like the kid who later got away was giving the guy a lot of trouble at this point. He had to land here for a second before he joined the others over there."

"Bet it was Kiba," Iruka murmured.

"So the direction from where I'm standing to where the rest of you are," Kakashi went on, "is northwest. Keep going that way and you reach the neutral land between Leaf and Waterfall. That's not close to Kusagakure, so it wouldn't cast suspicion on them. Makes sense. . ." He pushed himself up from his crouch and announced, "All right, team—keep moving straight on, due northwest." The four of them broke into an abrupt run, the dogs bounding in their wake. Iruka pulled ahead as Genma muttered clandestinely to Kakashi,

"And you're _sure_ this is the right way to go?"

"Nope," Kakashi answered, matter-of-fact. "It's a calculated gamble. Here's hoping I calculated right."


	5. That's IT?

Master Kakashi _had_ gotten his calculations right. As they got closer to the neutral ground, the dogs began to alert them of faint smells: young children, and Konoha. "Two boys," the pug panted. "And one man . . . maybe two?"

"That's _it_?" Kakashi said in bewilderment. He began sniffing rapidly, as though he might prove his four-legged friend wrong. Iruka, already ahead of the rest, put on a burst of speed and moved so far beyond them that he was almost out of eyesight. "Iruka!" Kakashi called. "Do the words 'four-man cell' mean anything to you?" But Iruka either couldn't hear or wasn't listening.


	6. Over the Waterfall, Beyond the Shadows

Up ahead was a crude stone building—it looked like it may have once been an inn for travelers in a time before the shinobi. Ordinarily, Iruka would have hidden to size up the situation, or crept around to complete reconnaissance before entering. But not this time. He barged right in and, seeing no one, dived towards a rotting trapdoor that covered a hole in the floor. Underneath it was a flight of stairs, upon which his feet made no sound as he nearly flew down them. There were screams coming from below, pleading, terror-stricken screams.

Master Iruka hit the floor and took a mere fourth of a second to absorb everything. In the far corner of the dim room, a ninja held Rock Lee's hair in one hand and a shuriken in the other. "Please don't!" Lee pleaded through his sobs. "I don't wanna die! I want to become a great ninja!" In a splendid display of selflessness, he clung tightly to Naruto, shielding the smaller boy as best as he could. The shinobi held the shuriken out, ready to rip the boys open.

Iruka had never mastered the art of teleportation, but in that moment, his movements were at par with the best shinobi in the business. He sprinted up behind the killer, pulling out two windmill shuriken. Without bothering to unfold them, he brought the two devastating weapons together on the man's ribs. The enemy fell with a choked cry amidst snapping bones and outpouring blood.

Iruka collapsed to his knees, his breathing shaky with relief. He pulled the boys into a tight hug. "Lee . . . Naruto . . ." he whispered huskily.

"Master Iruka," Lee sobbed against his teacher's shoulder. The rest of the team came soundlessly down the stairs behind them, and Kakashi pulled the bleeding shinobi up by the collar. He dangled lifelessly, and Kakashi let him drop again with a snort.

"Nice going, Iruka. You ruined one of our best chances to find out where the rest of them were headed." Iruka's eyes went wide when he realized his mistake, and he gritted his teeth, disgusted with himself.

"I wasn't thinking," he muttered. "I'm sorry."

"Why do you think I told everyone to stay together?" Kakashi went on. Then, from down by Iruka's knee, Naruto spoke up.

"Don't get mad at Sensei," he said in Iruka's defense.

"I deserve it, Naruto," Iruka explained to him quietly. "If it hadn't been for me, we'd be able to know where they're taking the rest of my students."

"But _I_ know where they're going." Everyone turned to Naruto when he said that, suddenly all ears. Naruto moved his finger up and over in an arc. " 'Over the waterfall, beyond the shadows.' " The four adults stared at one another.

"Naruto." Iruka took him by the shoulders earnestly. "This wouldn't be another one of your practical jokes, would it?"

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto protested his innocence. He squirmed, but with indignance rather than guilt. "The man with one eye. _He_ said it. Then he made us come down here."

"Over the waterfall. . ." Genma repeated thoughtfully. "You know, if they had kept going in the same direction from here, they would have eventually reached the Waterfall Village. Beyond that is the land of Iwa."

"And if they went even further," Kakashi added, "they would have gone beyond the Great Shinobi Territories—and be out of reach of the Five Shadows."

"But would they really take their captives that far?" Kurenai whispered in disbelief.

"They would if they knew anything about Konoha shinobi," Iruka declared. He looked to the team leader. "What do you say, Kakashi?"

"Let's move," Kakashi ordered. "Double time. Stay together and stay quiet." Iruka got up and looked down at the boys.

"We have to run now," he told them. "Can you do that?"

"Yes, Sensei!" they replied crisply.

"Good. Always keep close to us, and don't make any noise. Like in class, remember?" They nodded raptly.

"As long as they don't slow us down," Kakashi grunted. He led the five others out at a dead run. Naruto tripped halfway up the stairs, and Iruka lifted him up the last few steps.


	7. Kusa, Is It?

After being dismissed, Kakashi's dogs returned to Konoha, where they informed the Hokage and his retainers of everything the team had learned. "Kusa, is it?" Lord Third muttered grimly. "If they want to pick a fight with someone, they'll find out quickly that Konoha is not to be trifled with." He nodded at the canine squad and said, "Thank you for your intel." Then he spoke to his retainers. "Contact the leader of Kusagakure. We'll see what he has to say with regards to all of this."


	8. Will We Reach Them Today?

The journey was hard, nonstop running through woods, over hills, across rivers. Naruto had good intentions, but he tired right away and ended up being carried by Kurenai. Iruka ran at the back of the group to keep an eye on Lee, who had amazing endurance for his young age. His long legs carried him for more than three kilometers before he couldn't run any longer. After that, Iruka let Lee ride on his back.

To Genma's irritation, Kurenai's disappointment, and Iruka's anger, the team didn't reach their destination that night. Kakashi didn't seem bothered—he even announced that they were bedding down for the night. When met with protests from Iruka and Kurenai—after all, they were quite capable of running all night—he said, "If we went all out, we could catch them within a few days. But I want us to be in top form for the rescue. During the day, we run. We sleep at night." There were extra bedrolls for the boys. Exhausted as they were, they fell onto the blankets and fell asleep in minutes. Kurenai and Genma did, too, although it took them longer. But Iruka couldn't sleep. He tossed and turned while Kakashi stood guard nearby. "Go to sleep," he told Iruka flatly.

"I can't," Iruka answered under his breath.

"It wasn't a suggestion." Kakashi stared inscrutably at him, and to pacify the cell leader, Iruka lay still and contented himself with gazing at the two students he _had_ managed to save. But he couldn't stop thinking about the others, surely being abused in some form far off. His worry kept him awake all night.

In the morning they redressed and loaded their gear. "Will we reach them today?" Lee asked the question on everyone's mind.

"If we go fast, maybe we can catch up by tomorrow," Kakashi replied with a shrug. His casual demeanor baffled and irked Iruka. Kakashi might have been as tranquil as a sunset, but

Iruka was irritable and discontented. No speed seemed fast enough. Genma and Kakashi, _jonin_ as they were, made the endless sprint seem as easy as strolling. And although she was a _chunin_ like Iruka, Kurenai was as light and fast as a feather. Iruka got the feeling that he was holding the other three back—and not just because he was carrying one of the boys more often than not. The fact that he couldn't seem to move quickly enough made him push himself that much harder. He was worn through by nightfall.

"Don't wear yourself out when we've barely begun," Kakashi warned him before bedtime with an edge to his tone. Equally edgy himself, Iruka snapped back,

"We're not even close yet—and who knows what they might be doing to those kids right now?" He took off his _hitai-ate_ leaf headband to mop his forehead wearily. "Can't we run through the night, just once?"

"_No_," said Kakashi in no uncertain terms. He sighed and lay down next to Iruka: Genma was on sentry duty that night. "Look, you saw what they were going to do to those two. My guess is that their plan was to kill the deadweights, but keep the ones they thought might be of some use."

"Exactly!" Iruka hissed, agitated. "They're willing to do whatever they please, no conscience involved! We can't put anything past them! How can you be so calm?"

"They _want_ the rest of the students." Kakashi seemed completely certain. "I don't know what for, but they wanted them alive. They're not going to murder them before we get there." His words were small comfort; Iruka found it hard to believe them. But because Kakashi was the leader, Iruka nodded and rolled over. That night, his body succumbed to the demands that had been placed upon it, and he managed to sleep.

The next morning, he awoke to see Kurenai helping Naruto on with his sandals. Genma handed out apples—a handy breakfast that they could eat while on the move. Iruka forced his sore feet to run again, and forced himself to be patient when Lee asked again how close they were, and Naruto whined that his apple was mealy.

They sped up once they crossed the Waterfall border. Kakashi carried Lee and Genma carried Naruto so that Iruka and Kurenai could pour all their effort into going as fast as possible. They were finally getting closer. . .


	9. We're Coming!

It was two long days before they exited Waterfall territory and reached neutral ground again. Then came the arduous journey through the Land of Stones. The terrain was rocky, and high altitude seemed to be the rule rather than the exception. Half the time, it seemed, they were climbing mountains. Keen to avoid any contact with Iwagakure shinobi, Kakashi kept to the borders of the country as much as he could while he continued to lead them due northwest. The course he took led them through the mountainous regions rimming Iwa. Naruto and Lee were unable to keep up, and Kakashi's team took turns letting them ride piggy-back. If Iruka thought mountain-climbing was hard before, he hadn't imagined the difficulty of doing it while carrying a passenger—and for hours on end, no less! But Kakashi's leadership was top-notch, and they didn't run in to any enemy ninja during the four days it took them to make the trek through the Land of Stones.

At last, they arrived once more at neutral ground, this time to the west of Iwa. Even Kakashi was wiped out by this time, and all six of them slumped with relief when they finally came to a halt. Iruka put his hand against a tree trunk for support and waited for the trackers of the team to do their stuff. Kakashi went down on all fours in the grass, intermittently sniffing and panting. Genma squinted at tree branches and grass blades, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Kurenai crouched next to Lee and Naruto, stroking their heads. Exhaustion was finally cracking the boys' brave front. "I wanna go home." Naruto's voice quavered.

"We have to find the other students first," Kurenai reminded them unnecessarily.

"But they're so far away," Lee moaned. "And we've been going for so long, it feels like we'll never get there. What if we never find them?" He hiccoughed a sob. "Wh-what if they're dead?" Kurenai made a comforting hushing sound and put her arms around them.

"That's enough, kid," Genma reproved him gruffly, still peering at tree bark. "You know shinobi aren't supposed to cry."

"Yes, Master," Lee said meekly. He wiped the tears from his face.

"And the kids aren't dead yet," Kakashi informed them, standing up. "Their scents are still fresh. They passed through here recently."

"Look at this," Genma called. He held up a light-colored bit of fuzz. "Look familiar?" Kakashi came over to sniff at it.

"Canine," he confirmed.

"Akamaru!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly.

"It's Kiba's little dog," Iruka explained to the rest of them. "He never goes anywhere without him."

"I'd say we're hot on the trail," Genma declared with a rare grin.

"Then what are we waiting around for?" Kakashi joked. The team suddenly bloomed with new energy: everyone had a new spring in his step, and even the boys were running strongly.

"Hold on, guys!" Naruto hollered. "We're coming!"


	10. Here's What We're Going to Do

"Well, it's official—we've gone beyond the shinobi lands," Kakashi announced half an hour later. Naruto and Lee stared at one another in awe, causing Naruto to misstep and nearly fall flat on his face. Iruka caught his arm and helped him get back in stride.

"Anything goes here," Genma added tensely. "No boundaries, no laws. We have to be careful." They progressed for a little longer in silence; then Kakashi slowed to a stop and held out his arm.

"We're close." He sniffed the wind, turning his head this way and that, and finally pointed. "That way. Less than a kilometer. Iruka, Kurenai, carry the boys. I don't want any more tripping from here on in." Naruto stuck out his lip in a pout, but he couldn't argue. The shinobi's footsteps barely whispered over the ground.

As they came upon a large building, Kakashi bent double and waved at the others to do the same. It wasn't easy with a seven-year-old slung over his back, but Iruka was far from complaining. They scooted closer army-crawl style through the undergrowth. They sized up the situation from in hiding. It was a storage barn—all things considered, a remarkably innocent-looking place. There were no guards outside, no defense fortifications, nothing to keep them from going right in. The trouble was the wide open space that surrounded the barn. It would be difficult to approach it without being noticed. Kakashi lay flat on his stomach and filled everyone in on his plan under his breath. "Here's what we're going to do. I want three of me to rush the building from three different sides, one at a time, rapid-fire. If we're lucky, no one will notice there's duplicates."

"Who will the stand-ins be?" Iruka murmured.

"Kurenai and Genma," Kakashi replied, still staring at the barn. "Our objective is to get in, get those kids, and get out as quickly as possible. We don't leave until we have every one of them with us. To make sure everything goes smoothly, we have to figure out who we're after." To the group's _kunoichi_ he said, "Kurenai, you'll bring the girls. Genma and I will bring the boys." He flashed an uncertain glance at Iruka. "How many are there?"

"Four girls, six boys," said Iruka.

"All right, then, each of us will take three," Kakashi decided. "Describe them to us. We need to know exactly which ones we're going for."

"Well, there's a boy from the Uchiha Clan—he wears the crest on his back, so he shouldn't be hard to find. And you'll know Kiba when you see him, because he'll have the dog on his back. Neji has the Huyga eyes, and Shino . . ." Iruka shrugged helplessly. "Um, he's from the Aburame Clan, but there's nothing about him that really makes him stand out. . ."

"What about the other two?" Kakashi asked impatiently.

"Shikamaru and Choji. Shikamaru wears his hair back, like mine, and Choji—"

"Got it," Kakashi cut him off. "Genma, you look for Uchiha and Hyuga and the kid with the dog. I'll get the rest."

"And what about _me_?" Iruka put in.

"You stay here."

"You expect me to just sit here and _wait_?" Iruka hissed.

"I expect you to guard these boys with your life," Kakashi said, utterly sober. "I'm leaving them in your charge. And one more thing—if we're not back in ten minutes, you're leaving without us." He nodded at Naruto and Lee. "Take them with you and return to Konohagakure."

"All—all right," Iruka faltered.

"Do you understand what that means?" Kakashi went on. "If everyone except one person makes it out, then leave anyway. If only one team makes it back here, then leave anyway. If none of us have returned by then . . . then leave anyway. _Is that understood_?" He stared into his teammate's eyes until Iruka had to look away.

"Yes," he said quietly. "Understood."

"Good. Let's go, team." Genma and Kurenai turned into copies of Kakashi, and the three of them crept around the outskirts of the open space until they had triangulated themselves. Iruka watched with a sinking heart as the three of them went in, so quickly that he could barely follow their headlong rushes. Would all of them make it out in time? Would all of them survive?


	11. I'm Here to Rescue You

Kurenai-Kakashi slipped in the side door. To her left, the south wall jutted inward. It looked as though a recent addition had been made to create a row of narrow rooms along the wall. She folded herself against the wood and looked left and right. To her surprise, no guards were present in her immediate area. She began creeping along, listening at each door she passed. No sound came from behind them. All down the row she went. There didn't seem to be anyone inside, so she ran toward the south corner of the building.

It was then that she heard the murmur of voices. They were shrill, high, young-sounding. More than one. And female. Odds were good that they were the ones she was looking for. She made a hairpin turn and followed the sound. It led her to a cage, in which sat three girls. There were blankets on the floor, and the cage was large enough to hold all three of them comfortably, yet Kurenai thrilled with anger. The tallest girl was sawing—exceedingly futilely—at the iron bars with a kunai. Leaning in the corner, a blonde girl sat with her arm around the smallest girl, who was sobbing against her shoulder. Kurenai-Kakashi's appearance took them by surprise, and they flinched away from her. Then the taller girl's face lit up. "He's Konoha!" she cried. "It's okay!"

"That's right," Kurenai-Kakashi replied. "I'm here to rescue you."

"But how are you going to get us out?" the blonde girl asked anxiously.

"Don't worry about that," Master Kurenai assured her. She reached into the vest pocket on her chest. "Just stand back."


	12. We Don't Have All Day

The real Kakashi was jumped by a shinobi the moment he set foot inside the building. They battled briefly but furiously. Kakashi quickly got the upper hand and won, knocking the man out cold and finishing him off with a kunai knife. The ninja had had skills comparable to Iruka's: _chunin_ level, approximately. Kakashi hoped they would all be this easy to beat.

He caught a whiff of the same canine smell he'd come into contact with earlier that day. The boy's dog. Target acquired. Kakashi hurried as fast as his nose would guide him until he came upon a room with a door that had bars over it. He could see four boys on the other side.

"Hey, we already—" the boy with the dog on his head began to protest, but he stopped when the pup barked in his ear. "What? Konoha?" He peered closer at Kakashi, then grinned. "Hey, you're right, Akamaru! Wow! Who would've guessed?"

"I'll get you out," Kakashi promised them.

"What makes you think you can open the door?" the boy with the ponytail pointed out morosely.

"What makes you think I have to?" Kakashi shot back. He put his hands together and sank underground, to come up inside the cage. The boys gaped at his head, poking surreally out of the dirt. "Well, come on. We don't have all day." Kakashi wormed back into the hole he'd made, showing the boys that it was a tunnel. "Follow me. Hurry!"

"Awesome!" he heard one of them say. They crawled and squirmed their way out after Kakashi. Once they were all above ground again, he used the same jutsu to fill in the tunnel and, with a little tweaking, erased any sign of their presence there.

Except, of course, that the cage was now empty.


	13. Flying the Coop

Genma-Kakashi moved too quickly to be seen. His sandals made no sound, whether they made contact with dirt, wood, or concrete. He hadn't been detected by his enemies, but on the other hand, he hadn't been able to detect any of the children, either. Maybe it was time to slow down. He stopped by a row of disused horse stalls and hesitated. Since Kakashi and Kurenai were also scouring this level, and he himself hadn't been able to discover anything, maybe the best way to go was up. He raced to the first ladder he saw and climbed into the loft. Unlike the lower level, this one hadn't been reconstructed with all kinds of new rooms and corridors. He could see practically all the way across the floor. And although there were no livestock or hay to be found, he _did_ see what he had been searching for.

In the shadow of the far corner was a wrought-iron cage. He could make out children inside it. Crossing the distance in seconds, he squatted next to it and squinted through the bars. One boy and one girl, both staring at him. A third child, lying—sleeping?—next to them.

"Are you from Konoha?" asked the dark-haired boy quietly. "Or do you just _look_ like you are?"

"I'm from the Land of Fire," Genma-Kakashi said firmly. "I'm part of the rescue mission."

"What's the motto of the Ninja Academy?" challenged the boy.

" 'Discipline your body. Purify your soul. These two parts, a shinobi make: two halves of the same whole,' " Genma recited confidently. He hadn't spent five years of his youth at the Academy without at least learning that much.

"He _is_ from Konoha!" the girl gasped. "Oh, Master, please help! Neji won't wake up!"

"Neji almost got away," the dark-haired boy explained. "So they _did_ something to him to make him sleep."

"Hold on. I'll get you out of there." Iron cages weren't much of a match for Genma. He popped his trusty stick out of his mouth, stuck it into the keyhole, and began fiddling with it. In seconds, the lock clicked, and the door swung open. The dark-haired boy shot out like a cornered cat who was finally free. He had the Uchiha crest on the back of his shirt. The girl came after, struggling to drag Neji along. Genma took her burden and slung the unconscious boy under his arm. "Are you both from the same clan?" he surmised.

"Yes. I-I'm Hyuga Hinata, a-and Neji is from my clan," Hinata introduced herself with a bow. "Please, can you help him?"

"We'll do whatever we can." Genma took his radio out of his chest pocket and contacted Kakashi. "Listen, I have most of the kids I need, but I'm missing the one with the dog," he explained. "I got the Hyuga girl, instead."

"So you have three?" Kakashi's voice came over the radio. "And Kurenai has three. Add that to the four I have, and we're all set." The radio was silent for a moment; Genma guessed that Kakashi had been forced had to duck out of sight. He waited until he could hear the team leader's voice again. "All right, we've got the kids—now let's get out of here. You know where to rendezvous. Try not to get drawn into combat if you can." Genma nodded and waved the two children over.

"We're flying the coop, gang," he announced. "Stay close behind me." He dashed over to the ladder and jumped down to the next floor. The Uchiha boy slid down without stepping on the rungs, and Hinata followed more haltingly. Once she was down, Genma raced to a west-facing window. But he heard faint footsteps rushing to intercept him, and he turned towards the sound. The Uchiha boy sensed his tension and stopped, too. Genma's eyes widened when he saw that Hinata was still several steps away, and the shadowed enemy was leaping toward her.

Genma-Kakashi laid Neji down and threw himself forward on an interception course, and his kunai made contact with the ninja's unusually large shuriken. "Get out _now_!" he yelled at the children, who were crouched uncertainly next to Neji. Hinata heaved Neji upright, and the Uchiha boy grabbed Neji's feet. The two of them carried him over to the window, where the dark-haired boy jumped to the sill and reached down to pull up their unconscious companion. Hinata had quite a bit of trouble holding her cousin's limp body high enough. Finally she got him propped up, and the Uchiha boy grabbed his wrist. She jumped up to the sill, as well, and together they pulled Neji after them and dropped over the side. Three children—safe.

Meanwhile, Genma-Kakashi was literally fighting for his life. His opponent turned out to be the shinobi with one eye that Naruto had mentioned—and he was good. It had been hard enough to fight him alone, but another shinobi jumped into the fray not long after.

Things were looking grim for Genma.

**A/N: Yes, I made up the motto for the Ninja Academy. If anyone out there knows the _real_ motto, could you please tell it to me?**


	14. Earth Style!

"Look, Sensei!" Naruto whispered. "It's Master Kakashi!"

Iruka had seen the Kakashi emerge, too, but he knew better than his student. "No," he murmured. This Kakashi's movements were full of grace. "Kakashi doesn't move like that. See?" The Kakashi waved his arm in a summoning gesture, and three girls scuttled out the door. "It's Master Kurenai."

"Oh, yeah." Naruto's eyebrow wrinkled in puzzlement. "But . . . isn't she missing a girl?"

Iruka had been so relieved to at least see someone come out of the building that he had forgotten that Kurenai was indeed supposed to have four girls with her. He frowned, troubled, and shook his head. "Maybe something came up," he suggested. Kurenai came up behind the girls as they ran to take cover in the bushes next to Iruka. "Where are the others?" he asked in an undertone as soon as she threw herself down next to him.

"I don't know," she admitted helplessly. "Kakashi told us to get out. So he's not here yet?" Iruka shook his head grimly. They only had one minute left.

"Ino, Tenten!" Lee exclaimed, before remembering he had to be quiet. He smiled apologetically at the masters and continued in a whisper, "You got out!" The three girls gaped at him.

"It's Lee and Naruto!" gasped Sakura.

"They're okay!" Ino crowed.

"And it's all thanks to Iruka-sensei—he saved us," Lee explained with something close to awe. The children laughed together, rejoicing over seeing one another again.

New activity could be seen from the barn. From a first-story window, two children dropped heavily to the ground, supporting their comrade between them. They ran with difficulty over to where the others hid. Iruka scooted forward to take their burden from them. Now there were eight children, plus two masters. But they were missing the other two masters and four of the kids. And in seven seconds, their time limit would be reached.

All of a sudden, the last four boys came pelting out of the building. Iruka saw the reason for their frenzied dash when two enemy shinobi came speeding up behind them. Getting to his feet, Iruka was ready to rush out to defend them, but he saw it wasn't necessary when a Kakashi hurtled up behind them and tackled them to the ground.

"Earth style!" the real Kakashi's voice rang out as his head popped out of the dirt. His arms emerged, as well, to drag one of the ninja Genma had flattened down underground. The man's scream was cut off as he disappeared below the earth. Genma had already engaged in hand-to-hand combat in the short time it took for Kakashi to dig himself out. After he was on land again, Kakashi vanished and appeared by the enemy's right shoulder. He attacked with a kunai knife, but the one-eyed ninja's hand came up to hit Kakashi in the wrist, forcing his hand to fly back.

"Think you can sneak up on me from my 'blind side'?" the shinobi scoffed. "I don't have that weakness!"

"I don't need to sneak up on you to beat you," Kakashi growled. The shinobi's eyes widened in shock as Genma-Kakashi plunged a shuriken into the back of his neck. "Not when I have another me to do it for me," Kakashi finished. Their enemy's body began to tremble and dissolve.

"Unfortunately for the both of you," jibed the figure, "the only thing you defeated was a clone." His body fell to pieces, and the pieces crumbled into pebbles.

"Substitution," muttered Genma. He and Kakashi immediately began scanning the area. Where was the real enemy?

All was quiet, however, and no one else appeared to challenge them. Genma-Kakashi sighed, and the real Kakashi did likewise, covering up his sharingan eye with his leaf headband. They joined the rest of the group, along with the four boys, who had been watching the fight from nearby. "Twelve, all present and accounted for," Kakashi noted.

"The Hyuga boy seems like he'll be okay," Kurenai-Kakashi spoke up. "I don't have much to offer when it comes to medic skills, but I think he's just sedated. He should wake up soon enough." Hinata looked relieved, and Kakashi nodded his satisfaction.

"Let's get out of here." He pointed to the group of children. "You guys stay together unless I tell you to separate. Got that?" The children nodded as one.

"But Master," Choji piped up, "how will we be able to tell that it's you, and not one of the other yous?"

"I'm getting to that," Kakashi replied. He waved his hand at the Kakashi look-alikes. "You can let down your jutsu," he said to them. His two fake clones nodded and held up their first two fingers. With two puffs of smoke, they went back to normal.

"Ooh! Substitution jutsu!" Kiba exclaimed. Iruka corrected him automatically.

"No, it's genjutsu, Kiba—using jutsu to make something seem real when it really isn't."

"Let's go, team," Kakashi commanded. "Genma, you lead. Kurenai and Iruka, right and left. I'll stay back." The children clustered together in the middle, Kurenai scooped up Neji, and the whole team set off.

"That guy who blew open the door to our cage is actually a _girl_!" Ino whispered to Sakura, and the two tittered together.


	15. Hold the Line Here

Everyone hurried as much as he could, but going was slow when there were twelve little kids to contend with. The fact that Kiba and Lee possessed great endurance, didn't make up for the fact that pretty much all the others couldn't go very fast for very long. Iruka was tense, and Kurenai jumped at the rustle of every leaf. All the adults felt the crushing need to go faster.

But speed didn't come easily to their group. They were attacked before they had covered much distance from the site of their last battle. Kiba and Akamaru tilted their heads upward as one, and Kakashi suddenly slowed. There was no more warning than that. Shuriken whizzed towards them from all sides, only slightly smaller than windmill shuriken. The Konoha shinobi went into action. Iruka and Kurenai pulled out kunai knives and parried the enemies' shuriken away. The force of diverting the blows rang through Iruka's whole arm. By his side, Kakashi barked at the children, "Get down!" They flattened themselves against the grass while Kakashi artfully stuck the first two fingers of both hands through the central holes in the shuriken. Snagging two of them at once, he whirled and sent them flying back from where they had come. Genma bent over backwards to duck a shuriken that would have sliced him in half. From this awkward position, he thrust the flat of his hand upward to divert the shuriken and send it harmlessly into the air. The first wave of shuriken having successfully been avoided, Kakashi gave orders again. "Genma, Kurenai, take the kids and keep going. Iruka and I will hold them off."

"Are you sure?" Genma asked.

"Go—hurry," Kakashi repeated. Genma nodded and herded the cluster of children onward.

"Kurenai, take the lead," he said to his partner. With Kurenai in front and Genma in back, the group beat a hasty retreat, leaving Iruka and Kakashi standing alone. As another wave of shuriken rushed at them, they turned so that their backs were against one another. The spinning blades came at them hard and fast. Kakashi was able to avoid or parry his, but Iruka wasn't able to do so. He deflected all the weapons from the front, but two of the shuriken Kakashi had ducked came at Iruka from behind and slit open his shoulders. He grunted with pain, and the next thing he knew, Kakashi had linked elbows with him from the back. The Copy Ninja leaped off into the air as shuriken came at them from all sides, carrying Iruka along for the ride. They landed on a tree branch where they would have a greater vantage point.

"It's not just us in this fight," he muttered to Iruka.

"I know," Iruka hissed back, quickly binding up the shallow cuts on his shoulders.

"Remember," Kakashi went on, his tone emphatic, "if any of them gets past us, the children will be in danger."

"None of them will get by," Iruka vowed. He put a kunai knife into his mouth, took out a scroll, and wrapped the end of it around the branch. "We hold the line here." Grabbing the scroll, he leaped off and let the roll pay out so that he could swing down to the ground. He began fighting like mad the second his feet touched the earth. Kakashi jumped down to join him.


	16. Are We Going Home?

The undergrowth rustled, and the bushes nearby twitched. Genma froze and held up his hand to stop the troop. "Stay together, everyone!" Kurenai called out. The team bunched together uneasily, waiting, as whoever was approaching them got closer.

The ferns parted and Kakashi appeared. Iruka's arm was across his shoulders for support, and the two of them made a surprisingly anticlimactic entrance.

"What happened?" Genma asked right away.

"We chased them off," Kakashi answered. "But it seemed like they were only sizing us up."

"_Toying_ with us, more like," Iruka put in dryly. He seemed a little battered, but nothing more. Sliding off Kakashi to sit down on a stump, he went on, "They weren't even _trying_ to win; they just kept striking from the shadows and then left as suddenly as they came."

"It could have been an ambush," Kakashi conceded. "If so, it wasn't very well planned. Anyway, we can't hang around here. Continue as we were before. We're heading straight back the way we came."

"Iruka-sensei, are we going home?" Naruto asked, pulling on his teacher's arm. Iruka grinned and pushed himself to his feet.

"Yes, Naruto—we're going home."


	17. To the Honored Hokage

_The revered Kusanin of the highest rank,_

_To the honored Hokage Sarutobi, the Fire Shadow,_

_What privilege is this, that I am sent a messenger hawk by none other than the greatest shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village! I am grieved to hear of your village's plight_._ To have an entire class of cadets stolen from right under your nose, is a crippling blow, indeed_._ It is my sincerest wish that you find them and return them to their village where they belong_._ And I assure you, upon my honor as a shinobi, that no Kusa ninja were involved in the kidnapping_._ Whatever rumors you may have heard, whatever evidence you claim to have found, I swear to you that Kusagakure is innocent of the crimes of which you suspect it_.

_I wish you the greatest success in your endeavors, and fervently hope that Kusa and Konoha can continue to coexist on peaceful terms_.

The Kusa leader nodded as he reread the letter. "Attach it to Konoha's hawk and send the bird back home," he ordered one of his men. "This should put their suspicions to rest."

"And if it doesn't?" the addressed _jonin_ asked.

"Then I will personally find and kill the kidnappers," Kusagakure's leader replied flatly.


	18. Do You Want Your Rice?

The troop still wasn't moving fast enough for anyone's liking, but at least they weren't attacked again. Iruka supposed he should've felt triumphant that he had been one of the ones to chase their enemies away. Yet he didn't think that was what had happened. In Iruka's mind, the enemy shinobi had withdrawn too quickly and precisely to be retreating. He suspected that they had only left to regroup and mount an attack at a more strategic time or place.

That night, they made camp, once more inside the Iwa border. Neji woke up as Kakashi was serving rice. The little cadet staggered to his feet and formed a crooked fighting stance. "Wh-who a-are you?" he stammered, sounding uncharacteristically like his cousin.

"At ease, kid—I'm from Konoha. We rescued you." Kakashi told him. He handed the confused boy a bowl of rice. "Hey, Kurenai, our Rip van Winkle is awake." Kurenai quickly abandoned her supper and came over to them with Hinata running behind her.

"N-Neji! You're all right!" Hinata cried, hugging him spontaneously. Neji nearly tipped over, and Kurenai steadied him.

"Careful, Hinata, he's still dizzy. Neji, can you understand me? Sit down, now; you'll feel better soon. You've been asleep for a long time. Do you want your rice?" Neji shook his head, looking nauseated at the mention of food. "All right, we'll save it for you to eat later," Kurenai told him.

"I don't think this stuff is _worth_ saving," Shikamaru muttered to Choji, who was sitting next to him. His chubby friend nodded in fervent agreement.

"So I burned it a little," drawled Kakashi, who had overheard the remark.

"Try a _lot_," Iruka ribbed him good-naturedly.

"Let Kurenai cook it next time," Genma added. Ino raised her hand as though she were in school.

"Iruka-sensei? Do I have to eat my rice?"

"It tastes baaad," Naruto chimed in.

"Quit whining and eat it, you brats," Kakashi grumbled to everyone in particular. "You're not getting anything else tonight."


	19. Let's Wash Up

At some point, the fact that the team had been going for more than a week, caught up to them. It wasn't in exhaustion, however, but in odor. In an innocent question, Kiba caught them off-guard when he asked, "What's that funny smell?" At first they were bemused by his query, but when he explained that he had been smelling this unpleasant stench for some time, Kurenai seemed to understand and actually laughed out loud.

"I think that smell is _us_, Kiba." She smiled rather apologetically. "We've been running, fighting—sweating—for a long time now. I suppose we need a bath."

"So with all our secrecy, our enemies will be able to track us by stench?" Iruka joked. Kakashi wasn't laughing; in fact, he appeared to be seriously considering Iruka's remark.

"If Kiba and Akamaru can smell us, it stands to reason that other shinobi could, too," he mused.

"You've got to be kidding," Iruka said.

"Don't underestimate the power behind a good nose," Kakashi warned him. As though to prove his point, he began sniffing the air. "For instance, I smell water in that direction." He pointed to their right. "So let's wash up." He changed course and headed straight for a steep incline. Anyone who still thought he couldn't be serious, was convinced when he informed them, "There's a stream over this cliff. Sounds like it empties into a pool—perfect for us smelly ninja." He bent down and scooped up Sakura. Turning to Hinata, he offered, "Get on my back. I'll carry you two up first." Hinata clambered on and shyly wrapped her arms around him. With Sakura's arms looped around his neck from in front, and Hinata's from behind, Kakashi got ready to climb. "Hold on," he said to them, then took off. Scaling the rock wall on all fours, in leaps and bounds, he looked half like a mountain goat, half like a dog. Genma followed quickly, and when they'd reached the top, they dropped nearly-invisible strings down. Iruka and Kurenai tied the children to the ends one at a time, so that they could be hoisted up. Sasuke and Neji scorned such help, preferring to take up the challenge of climbing by themselves. They were the last two to make the ascent, with Kurenai and Iruka climbing behind them in case they fell. When Lee saw them coming up, he tried to climb down to them to prove he could do it, too. Genma dragged him back and shook him roughly.

"What do you think you're doing, kid? You don't have what it takes to make the climb—especially backwards!" Lee was stung by his words.

"That is not true!" he insisted. "I am as good as Neji!"

"Neji forced your captors to sedate him so that they could keep him under control," Genma grunted. "He's better than any of you." The aforementioned Hyuga boy heaved himself over the top, smiling tightly at the indirect praise. Sasuke, Iruka, and Kurenai came after him.

"Boys, follow me!" Iruka called, pushing himself to his feet and heading for the mountain pool. Pushing herself to her feet also, Kurenai said,

"Come on, girls—we'll do the boys' laundry while they're washing. Then we'll switch." Iruka led the menfolk down into the basin that cradled the lake where they would wash. Once at the water's edge, he, Genma, and Kakashi stripped their clothes off. They hurled them out of sight to where they knew Kurenai was waiting. The boys stared round-eyed at their masters. It was the first time any of them had seen—or even dreamed of seeing—a shinobi without any clothes on. Unperturbed, Genma and Kakashi dove in, and Iruka turned to his students.

"Okay, get your clothes off." Many of them shot one another looks of dismay.

"Really? Awesome!" cheered Naruto, who unlike his fellow students was thrilled. He and Kiba shed their clothing in no time flat and threw themselves into the water. "Aaah! Cold, cold, _cold_!" Naruto yelped. Kiba and Akamaru dog-paddled in tandem.

"Come on. Now the rest of you," Iruka urged them. Shikamaru and Choji wriggled out of their clothes, and Neji and Sasuke did so more reluctantly. Iruka tugged Shino's surcoat off as Lee undressed. Finally, all eight boys were in the pool, although some of them had needed a push from behind. Throwing their heap of dirty laundry up to the rocks where the girls were, Iruka jumped in, too. Kakashi threw him something he hadn't expected to see until returning to Konohagakure: a bar of soap.

"It's Kurenai's," the silver-haired ninja explained. His left eye was closed, and he continued to wear his face mask even while swimming. Iruka let his hair out of its ponytail and scrubbed himself down hastily. After he had finished with himself, he reached out and snagged the first thing to swim past him. It turned out to be Akamaru. With a sigh, Iruka washed up the little puppy. When Kiba came to see what was keeping his dog, Iruka grabbed and washed him, too, ignoring the boy's protestations.

Kakashi and Genma got out as soon as they'd finished cleaning themselves up, so Iruka knew he couldn't expect any help from them. By himself, he undertook to cleaning eight boys. They all responded differently to his enforced bathing. Naruto put up a fight, the same as Kiba, yet for all his struggles, he seemed to enjoy the attention. Shino was easy to pin down: distrustful of water, he was huddled in the shallows and didn't bother fighting Iruka off. Neither did Neji, who appeared to do nothing more than put up with what he clearly thought was a very annoying Iruka. Choji seemed to enjoy his turn, although Shikamaru was distasteful at best. Lee was quite obedient, doing everything Iruka asked. Sasuke pouted, but at least he didn't struggle.

When he was finished, Iruka slogged out of the aquifer with a boy under each arm and six more trailing after him. Since their clothes were wet, they were forced to make due with whatever spare clothing the men had brought along. The outfits were divvied up, and the end result was somewhat comical. Neji wore a shinobi vest that was much too big for him. Lee's arms and torso were encased in linen wrapping: from the waist to the neck, he resembled a mummy. Many of the boys had to settle for plain black garments normally worn under a shinobi uniform. Genma, Kakashi, and Iruka wore the thin shirts and pants that they normally wore to bed. Kurenai and the girls left to attend to their own baths while the boys did their laundry. Iruka whacked Kiba in the head when the boy tried to peep at the naked girls. After that, all the boys were kept busy rubbing clothes against rocks.

When the girls were done bathing, Ino sported a kimono that was too long for her, and Tenten, despite standing a head above the other little girls, had to bunch up the red leggings she was wearing until her legs bulged.

It was an almost ludicrous band of shinobi who came down the cliff and continued on their way.


	20. The Game They Were Playing

Two days passed. The team had now gone halfway around the Land of Stones, still skirting the border. Kakashi seemed preoccupied that night. When the game that the children were playing got too rowdy for his liking, he snapped at them, "Quiet down, you brats!" Looking hurt, the boys and girls stopped what they were doing. Iruka frowned and came to their defense.

"Kakashi, they're just kids," he explained to the team leader in an undertone. "What can you expect from them?"

"They're also ninja cadets," Kakashi pointed out. Iruka scowled.

"Yes, but not every kid makes _chunin_ at age six, like you."

"Flattery will get you nowhere," drawled Kakashi.

"It's not flattery!" Iruka hissed. "You don't get it, do you? These kids are seven years old—eight, in some cases," he acknowledged, "but the point is, they look _up_ to you, Kakashi. To all of you."

"Really?" Kakashi remarked skeptically.

"Didn't you see the game they were playing?" Iruka pointed over his shoulder. The children were fighting over a handkerchief they had gotten from Kurenai. Right on cue, Choji grabbed it for himself and tied it over his face.

"I get to be Kakashi now!" he crowed.

"Who said you were cool enough to play Kakashi?" Shino complained, sulky.

"Can I be Kurenai?" asked Sakura eagerly.

"I want to be Genma!" Lee called out. He held up a long twig he had managed to find and propped it in his mouth.

"All right, I guess you can since you have the stick," Kiba grumbled. "But I still think I should play Kakashi. We have the same noses."

"You played Kakashi last time!" Sasuke pointed out indignantly.

"I wanna be Iruka, I wanna be Iruka!" Naruto piped up. The others seemed willing to let him play that role.

"You can have him," agreed Neji, and Shikamaru nodded.

"All you have to do is stand there and lecture," said the Nara boy with a roll of his eyes. Meanwhile, Choji, Shino, Kiba, and Sasuke were still squabbling over Kakashi rights. The real Kakashi stared for a moment at the argument over who got to pretend to be him.

"See?" Iruka said. He grinned fondly at his students. "Don't expect too much out of kids who can't even be trusted to wash behind their ears. And try to be a little nicer, will you? It's you they respect the most."

"Keep them quiet, will you?" grumbled Kakashi. "I have work to do. And make them stop that silly game." Iruka sighed, nodded, and went over to the children.

"Okay, gang," he called, clapping his hands together. "Listen up. Who remembers the sign of the _tori_?"

"He's lecturing again," muttered Shikamaru gloomily.

"Pay attention, Shikamaru," Iruka admonished. "After all, we can't let you forget your ninja training while you're away from the Academy, can we?" He stared down at his students. "Can anyone remember _tori_?" Haltingly, Hinata raised her hand.

"M-Master? Is this it?" She steepled her pointers and pinkies and laced the two middle fingers together.

"Very good, Hinata, yes—that is the hand sign of _tori_, the bird," Iruka praised her. "Now show me what sound _tori_ makes."

"U-um, caw?" Hinata guessed without much conviction.

"Louder!" Iruka urged her. He formed the same _kata_ as she had. "What does _tori_ sound like? Say it loud!"

"C-caw, caw!" Hinata squeaked, reddening at the knowledge that she was calling attention to herself.

"Good! Now, who knows the hand sign for _inu_?" Immediately Kiba waved his hand in the air.

"_Inu_!" he shouted, putting the flat of one hand against the fist of another. He howled at the sky, and Akamaru yapped from his shoulder.

"Exactly right!" Iruka congratulated him. "_Inu_ is dog. Who knows _mi_?" No one seemed able to remember it until Neji lifted his hand up.

"_Mi_," he stated with cool confidence as he folded his hands tightly. "The sign of the snake."

"That's right, Neji—well done. What noise does _mi_ make?" Neji hissed long and low. "That's a snake, all right," Iruka agreed. "Okay, who can show me _tora_?" This time, nobody volunteered. Iruka noticed the boys sharing secret grins. Choji started to raise his hand, but Shikamaru elbowed him, and he lowered it right away. "Are you telling me none of you know _tora_?" Iruka pressed them. "It's the first hand sign you learned." He looked at Sasuke, whose clan used _tora_ in almost all their jutsu. But Sasuke just stared back at him with the air of someone who knew the answer but wouldn't say it. Iruka sighed: if they were going to be difficult, he would just have to deal with it. "_Tora_. The sign of the tiger," he declared. He folded his hands, but kept his index fingers pointed upward. "_Tora_. Remember it."

"Now make the _tora_ sound, Sensei!" shouted Naruto eagerly.

"Yeah. Show us _tora_," Sasuke told him almost smugly. Iruka saw through their little game and raised his eyebrow. If they wanted him to play _tora_, he would give it to them—and then some.

"Oh, you want me to be like _tora_, do you? Well then . . ." He crouched down on all fours and roared at the top of his voice. "You'd better watch out!" The children squealed in delight and scattered. Iruka got to his feet again and charged at the first boy he saw: Sasuke. The Uchiha boy ran in the opposite direction. "Evade me like a shinobi!" Iruka rumbled. Sasuke kept running until he had ascended a small rise. From there, he turned abruptly and made a leap into the air. He soared straight at Iruka, who was taken by surprise. Sasuke's foot came down on Iruka's shoulder, and he bounded straight over his teacher to come down behind him. "Good job, Sasuke!" he said, taking a two-second break from being _tora_ to be a teacher again. Then he rushed at Neji, who was standing nearby. Neji threw one of his little shuriken in the direction of Iruka's feet. It caught in the bushes behind Iruka. At first he assumed that Neji had missed, but when he tripped over an invisible obstacle, he discovered that the shuriken had been attached to a drag line. While he staggered, trying to get his footing, Neji ran to pull the line forward again, causing Iruka to be swept off his feet and fall back. "V-very good, Neji," he grunted, a little breathless. "Excellent work." He rolled to his feet and whirled to run straight at Naruto, who gulped and scurried into a stand of trees. "You'll have to do better than that, Naruto! You can't hide from _tora_!" Iruka growled. He raced into the copse and was taken by surprise for the second time that day, as he ran straight into Naruto, hanging by his hands from a tree branch. Naruto swung forward and kicked Iruka right on his leaf headband. Iruka stumbled back and caught himself against a tree trunk. Naruto, unfortunately, lost his grip and fell from the branch. He landed flat on his back with a yell of pain and sat up, clutching the back of his head. "Good try, Naruto," said Iruka kindly, "but you can't evade _tora_ with a landing like that." Naruto's eyes teared up as he massaged his head. "You're a ninja, remember," Iruka reminded him as he helped his littlest student to his feet. "You have to be able to get up and fight again. How else are you going to beat your enemy?"

"Like this." Kakashi's voice came out of thin air somewhere nearby. He appeared at Iruka's shoulder so suddenly that Iruka had no time to react. Kakashi wrapped one arm around Iruka's stomach, pinning the hapless teacher's left arm against him. He twisted Iruka's right arm behind him and shoved Iruka against a tree for good measure.

"K-Kakashi has just illustrated the perfect way to incapacitate a shinobi," Iruka panted. The children stared admiringly. Some of them applauded.

"I thought I told you to keep them quiet," Kakashi muttered into Iruka's ear.

"See, when you said, 'Keep them quiet,' I thought you meant, 'Get them out of my hair,' " said Iruka apologetically.

"No, I meant, 'Keep them from announcing our arrival to everyone in the area,' " Kakashi informed him dryly.

"Sorry about that," Iruka apologized. "Can you let me go now? I can't feel my arm." Kakashi released him and waved at the children in a shooing motion. "All of you, get to bed. The lesson is over for today." Groaning in disappointment, the students nonetheless trailed off obediently. Leading Iruka over to where Genma and Kurenai were sitting, Kakashi pulled a scroll from within his vest and spread it out on the ground. "We're splitting into four groups." His announcement caused Iruka's eyes to widen in dismay.

"You're dividing up the team? Why?"

"Think about it. Twelve kids and four shinobi, all traveling in one big pack?" Kakashi shook his head. "It's a wonder the whole land of Iwa doesn't already know we're here." Genma and Kurenai, who had obviously already heard Kakashi's change of plans, nodded their agreement.

"We're quadrupling the standard Konoha cell limit," Genma pointed out. "If we want to get back to Konoha undetected, it's better that we travel in small, inconspicuous groups." Iruka frowned, reluctant to agree with them, but seeing that they made a good point.

"All right, so which kids do we all take?"

"I'll take Sasuke, the Hyuga girl, and our dog-boy Kiba," Kakashi said. "I like kids who remind me of me."

"I can bring Sakura, and Choji and Shikamaru," Kurenai offered.

"I'll bring the blond girl, the Hyuga boy, and the Aburame boy," Genma said.

"That leaves Lee, Naruto and Tenten for me," Iruka counted them off.

"Right. We'll break off tomorrow morning," Kakashi said to them. He pointed down at the scroll on the grass. "I'll circle around to Konoha from this side, and Genma will come in from the other side." He traced his finger along the southern borders of Stones and Waterfall, then did the same along the northern border to illustrate the routes he'd just spoken of. "Kurenai, since you're the fastest of all of us, I'm sending you on the most roundabout path." He ran his finger in an arc that was similar to his own route, except that it dipped much further south into enemy territory before finally crossing into the Land of Fire. "Iruka, you're the slowest, so you'll continue the way we were going, a straight shot to Konoha."

Iruka smiled wryly. "Thanks, Kakashi."

"You're on guard duty tonight, too—stay sharp," said Kakashi. While the other three shinobi retired for the night, Iruka stationed himself in a tree, staring out at the darkness for hours.


	21. Fight or Die

He thought it would be just another quiet night. But for the first time while he was on sentry duty, Iruka heard sounds. They were faint, and any normal person would have dismissed the noises as the type caused by the blowing wind. But Iruka and his Konoha comrades weren't that naive. He knew someone was sneaking up on them, and he jumped down to the sea of bedrolls to warn his team. Mere moments after he had awoken them, they were on their feet and ready to do battle. They squared themselves off, surrounding the still-sleeping cadets. A single over-large shuriken came whirling down—probing their skills. Irritated, Iruka pulled out his own windmill shuriken and deflected the weapon with a single, ominous clang. Behind him, the children stirred and started to wake up.

"Stay where you are, and stay down," Kakashi ordered them. To his team, he said quietly, "Hold your positions, and don't break the line." One by one, enemies began to appear from the shadows. They surrounded the Konoha ninja, staring without expression. Then, in a single wave, all of them rushed forward to attack. Genma merely stepped out of his enemy's way and pushed him to the ground. Iruka engaged in a hand-to-hand sword fight of sorts, pitting his windmill shuriken against the slightly smaller shuriken of three other shinobi. Kurenai threw a letter bomb in her opponents' path, causing an explosion to engulf them. Yet when the flames died, only strange heaps of earth remained where the ninja had been standing. Kakashi, holding a dazed ninja by the collar, enlightened them as to what was going on. "Watch!" he yelled out, slashing the back of his enemy's head open with a kunai knife. The blood spilled out, but when it reached the ground, it became fine sand. "They're using earth clones, plus regular clones, too. There are six different scents, so there aren't that many to deal with—but it'll be hard to find the real ones, with all these doppelgangers around."

"Master! There are eight!" Kiba piped up. Kakashi turned to size him up, but Kiba was in no way unsure of himself. Akamaru barked in agreement.

". . . I stand corrected," Kakashi amended his statement. "There are eight. Keep count of the ones you kill." He spun around and buried his kunai in the belly of an enemy ninja. Inhaling deeply through his nose, he waited for the scent to tell him if the ninja was real. The air was laden with the scents of one dog, sixteen Konoha shinobi, six—_eight_—enemy shinobi, blood, metal, earth, and . . . water. The new odor made his uncovered eye go wide with shock. How had he missed such an obvious scent? The ninja he had attacked was grinning like one who now had the upper hand. Kakashi saw why when the man's entire body rippled like water: he was a water doppelganger. His body dissolved and swirled around Kakashi to trap him in a virtual whirlpool.

"What are you going to do now, Konoha ninja?" the clone taunted him. Kakashi was pouring all his effort into maneuvering his hands against the relentless force of the water.

"I'll think of something," he grunted. Little by little, the whirlpool carried him away from the spot on which he'd been standing.

"Keep thinking," the clone said pleasantly, "but meanwhile, the line is broken." Kakashi couldn't even turn to see, but he knew that there was now an opening for their enemies to get at the children. "Look out!" he yelled, struggling as a trio of shinobi rushed hungrily at the gap.

Neji saw them coming and ran to meet them with his hands balled into fists. He took a crude fighting stance. One of the ninja snorted and bent down to hoist him up by the lapel of his black gi. "This isn't a game, kid." Suddenly Neji thrust the flat of his hand out in a smooth movement. It connected with the man's chest, and he dropped Neji and staggered before dropping to his knees.

"I'm not just a kid—I'm a Konoha shinobi," Neji announced coolly.

"You idiot, that's the kid who had to be drugged to sleep!" the other ninja snarled at his crouching comrade. The ninja got to his feet.

"I won't underestimate him again," vowed the shinobi that Neji had hit. The three of them advanced cautiously.

"N-Neji!" Hinata squeaked. She crept up behind him with the intention of helping him fight, but Neji shoved her away. She stumbled back and sat down hard on the ground.

"Stay back, Lady Hinata!" Neji snapped. "You're no good at fighting. _I'll_ keep you safe." And he did, even though he was only eight years old. With thrusts of his hands, he used the Hyuga style to hold his foes at bay.

Genma had a ninja pinned under him. He shook the man by the collar until his head lolled limply. "Who are you working for? Which land has your allegiance?" he demanded to know. The shinobi lifted his lip in a wordless taunt. Genma slammed his head against the ground and pulled the stick from between his teeth. Holding the point of it close to his enemy's face, he asked again in measured tones, "Who's your leader? Which land are you allied with?" When he received no answer, he plunged the stick into the man's eye. He withdrew it, slick with blood, as the unfortunate man let out an agonized scream. "Tell me what I want to know—or your other eye is next." The man had now been reduced to tears. He spat blood out of his mouth, took a shuddering breath, and croaked,

"You'll have to kill me." For a long second, Genma gazed into the man's one good eye. He could see no weakness or irresolution there.

"So be it," declared Genma quietly. He drew his kunai and stabbed the man repeatedly, until his screams subsided and his body stilled. It didn't crumble to sand. "One down!" Genma shouted as he turned and leaped back into the fray. The children who had stood behind him stared at the bloody corpse without breathing. Tenten had tears in her eyes.

The line of defense was still only three-sided, since Kakashi had yet to free himself. Genma, Iruka, and Kurenai did a fine job triangulating themselves in his absence, but they couldn't make up for the lack of their best ninja. And the line was about to break again.

Iruka's opponents were sneakily clever. He hadn't realized that for the last few minutes, they had been leading him bit by bit away from his post. He turned to slash at an enemy and was dismayed when he saw how far he had gotten from his position. "Sensei!" Naruto called. Iruka switched his attention to the Uzumaki boy, and so had a perfect view of what happened next. A lone kunai knife came whistling through the air. It struck Naruto right in the throat. Naruto stumbled, his eyes wide. He groped at his neck and pulled the knife out, causing blood to rush down his front.

"Naruto, _no_!" screamed Iruka, rushing to his student's side in time to catch him as he fell. Naruto smiled up at him. Was he trusting Iruka to make him better? There was no help for such a wound.

"S-s-sensei," he managed to get out with a gurgling noise. Then his eyes closed. His breathing rapid, Iruka searched for the boy's pulse and found none. He laid Naruto down gently and stood up. Drawing a second windmill shuriken, he stared down his opponents with more hatred than any of them had seen before. With a roar, Iruka rushed into battle. His speed and strength had doubled.

"They got Naruto!" Sasuke wailed. Choji and Shikamaru shrank against him, as though they might hide themselves in his shadow.

"And only two grown-ups are still here," Shikamaru whispered. "They can't protect us all."

"Then we have to _fight_?" Choji's voice was high with fear. "We don't know _how_ to fight!" Sasuke was staring at Neji, who fought on and on without seeming to tire or be afraid.

"We can do it," Sasuke said quietly to the other two boys. "We're ninja. We have to fight or die."

"What a drag," Shikamaru understated hoarsely.

"Well, okay then—let's fight!" Choji exclaimed. He ran over to an enemy shinobi and kicked him in the ankle. The man let out a yell of pain and lifted his foot up for a moment. As soon as he did, Choji threw his weight against the shinobi's standing leg and knocked him flat.

"You little brat!" the ninja snarled, punching Choji's round stomach. Choji doubled over, and the man backhanded him right in the face.

"Choji!" Shikamaru shouted as his friend fell. He pulled out little shuriken and threw them. However, his technique needed work, and most of them flew aimlessly. The one that managed to hit the enemy ninja didn't sink in very far, and the man pulled it out like a minor annoyance. Shikamaru and Sasuke rushed to Choji's side, but Sasuke stepped in front of them.

"Stand back," he said seriously. He executed six hand signs, the man watching him warily. "Fireball jutsu!" Sasuke cried. A flame the size of a candle spurted out of his mouth and instantly died. The man chuckled.

"Sorry, kid—it'll take more than a matchstick-flame to beat us." He waved two of his friends over. "C'mon, let's tie 'em up." Sasuke and Shikamaru backed up, Shikamaru helping Choji along.

"What do we do now?" Shikamaru muttered. "If we can't use jutsu, and we can't use weapons, then—"

"Stay behind me," Sasuke muttered back.

"What good will _that_ do?"

"You'll see." Sasuke stopped edging back and planted his feet. The lead ninja shook his head.

"Come on, kid, give it up. Know when you're beaten." Sasuke glared petulantly at his enemy as he made the signs of the snake and sheep.

"Don't come any closer, or I'll use the Uchiha Clan's special jutsu on you," he warned.

"Yeah, let's see it again," the ninja mocked him with a grin. "Maybe you'll make a smokescreen this time." Sasuke formed the hand signs of monkey, boar, horse, and tiger.

"You asked for it," Sasuke growled. He took a deep breath and yelled, "Fireball jutsu!" Flames burst forth from his mouth, a conflagration that increased in size until it was easily four times the height of its wielder. It swallowed up the three men standing there before they even had a chance to move. The men screamed briefly before being incinerated, and the flames roared in victory. Once Sasuke closed his mouth, they vanished as suddenly as they had appeared. Five lumps of charred dirt on the ground spoke well of Sasuke: he had taken out five clones with a single attack.

Kakashi had succeeded in forcing his hands to his head and lifting up his formerly-cocked Konoha headband. The red eye hidden beneath it had seen Sasuke's jutsu. Despite himself, the young _jonin_ was impressed. "That kid's got _some_ firepower," he remarked. "I hope he doesn't mind if I borrow his technique."

"Not likely, _Konohanin_," the clone said to him, his eyes slits. "You're hopelessly trapped."

"True, but I can still move my hands, can't I?" Kakashi pointed out. Slowly, arduously, he moved his hands together until he could fold them. _Mi_ . . .

"I-impossible!" the doppelganger blustered. "No one should be able to move when trapped by my waterspout technique!"

"Guess your technique could use some work," Kakashi growled over the effort of making the next two _katas_. _Hitsuji_ . . . _Saru_ . . .

"How is it that you can still move?" the clone hissed irately.

Making _katas_ had never been so difficult. Kakashi's teeth were gritted as he haltingly—but correctly—finished the hand sign line-up. _I_ . . . _Uma_ . . . _Tora_. "Simple," he panted. "Because I have to." He drew a deep breath and blew out flames that formed a raging fireball as Sasuke's had. The water doppelganger instantly evaporated. Kakashi blew harder to make the flames billow outward. Dozens of clones disappeared into the fire, which became so large it filled the whole clearing. Genma and Kurenai leaped aside; the children had already fled into the trees; and Iruka continued fighting without seeming to notice the heat. Then Kakashi shut his mouth and the flames fizzled out. Everyone looked around, taken aback at the sudden absence of their foes.

"Do we pursue?" Genma asked. Kakashi looked at his winded team and shook his head.

"No. Our priority is to get to Konoha." He peered into the foliage. "Get out here, everyone." As the various children crept, skittered, and galloped out, Kakashi counted them. "Eleven," he noted. Iruka's face twisted in sorrow, but he said nothing. "We have to move on from here," Kakashi commanded his team. "I was planning to leave in the morning, but it's obviously not safe here anymore." Turning to the children crowded in front of him, he said, "We're going to split you all up. Sakura, Shikamaru, and Choji, you go with Kurenai. Ino, Neji, and Shino, you team up with Genma. Tenten and Lee go with Iruka. Sasuke, Hinata, and Kiba—you're with me." Akamaru yipped, and Kakashi added, "You, too, Akamaru."

"What about _me_?" demanded a familiar voice that made several jaws fall open. Naruto was sitting up and glaring indignantly at them for forgetting him. "Who do _I_ go with?" he asked. For a few seconds everyone just gaped at him. The dried blood all over his front and the kunai knife next to him silently told a stunning tale. Then Kakashi broke the silence with a chuckle.

"Look who just came back from the dead."

"_Naruto_!" cried Iruka. He was at the boy's side in a heartbeat, probing the encrusted blood on his neck. The wound was gone. "How did you—? A fully-grown man wouldn't have survived it, let alone a seven-year-old boy!"

"Anyone else _would_ have died," Kakashi acknowledged. "Anyone else, except Naruto."

"I'm strong, huh?" Naruto said with a wide grin. "Will I have a scar like you, Iruka-sensei?"

"I don't think so," Iruka answered, still a little dazed. Naruto seemed disappointed.

"Well, at least I have a stain," he boasted, stretching his T-shirt out to admire the blotches of blood on it. A brief welcome party convened as the children crowded around him to give him his favorite thing—attention.

"We thought you were a goner, Naruto!" Choji shouted.

"Yeah, that was amazing!" Kiba agreed, and Akamaru barked and wagged his tail wildly.

"We should have known it would take more than that to get rid of _you_, Naruto," Shikamaru commented, planting his fist on Naruto's scalp in a mock punch. Sasuke didn't say anything, but he was smiling.

"Come on, Naruto, let's get you cleaned off," Kurenai said to him, scooping up the Uzumaki boy and taking him to a stream where she could wash the blood off him. Meanwhile, Kakashi accosted Iruka.

"I told you not to break the line!" he hissed angrily in his subordinate's face. He glared at Iruka. "I don't get you. If I tell you to stick with the cell, you run off on your own. If I tell you to shut the kids up, you make them get even louder. If I tell you to hold your position, you abandon it. What do I have to do to make you follow orders?" Iruka acknowledged Kakashi's words with a nod, dispirited. Kakashi folded his arms. "That's what I have to say to you as your team leader. Here's what I have to say to you as a man." His visible eye slid shut. "You fought well." Iruka smiled crookedly in understanding.

"Thanks."

The children were divided into four and separated to join their various leaders. Kiba smirked at the rest of them. "We get the coolest, fastest, strongest ninja!" he bragged. Kakashi looked amused.

" 'Cool'? Well, the coolest ninja here would have to be Genma," he said, pointing out his _jonin_ teammate. "He's full of surprises, and if you think you know what to expect from him, you're dead wrong. He strikes hard and fast, like a snake. So you'll be Team _Mi_." Kakashi stood in front of Kurenai next. "And the fastest ninja is definitely Kurenai. She can fly like a bird. That's why you're Team _Tori_." He looked over at the last team. "And the strongest ninja? That would have to be Iruka." The previously mentioned shinobi grinned, suspecting a joke.

"Really?" he asked dryly.

"Do the math," Kakashi went on with a shrug. "There were eight shinobi we were fighting. Genma killed one; Iruka killed two. So he's the strongest. Your team will be Team _Tora_, because Iruka fights like a tiger."

"What will our team be, Master?" Sasuke put in.

"Team _Inu_," Kakashi answered, scratching Akamaru behind the ear, "because of our mascot." He continued, speaking to everyone now. "Run hard, teams. I expect you all to be back in Konoha by the end of the week."

"Right!" answered Kurenai, Iruka, and Genma.

"You'll have to get at least twenty-five kilometers away from here before you can rest for the night," Kakashi told them. "Remember your routes. Stay sharp." He stared at them all for a moment. "Now, go!"

Four shinobi and twelve shinobi cadets shot off in four different directions.


	22. Rest for the Night

Master Iruka set down Tenten and Lee and slung Naruto down off his back. In the last hour, they had covered the distance specified by Kakashi. Now it was time to rest for the night—well, it was for everyone except Iruka. He was standing guard again. The children went to sleep while he stood like a sentinel. He was weary as it was, but at least it wouldn't be a long stint. Morning was only a few hours away.


	23. Not Going to Be Ninja

Perched easily in the bushes at the edge of a cliff, Master Genma gazed down thoughtfully at a cluster of wagons making their way up the valley. An idea was forming in his mind, one he was reasonably sure would work. He returned to where his charges were sleeping and nudged them awake with the toe of his sandal. "Mmmh," groaned Ino as she opened her eyes. "Master, can't we sleep a little longer? I'm _tired_."

"Well, minus the fight-and-flight last night, you _didn't_ get to sleep much," Genma conceded. "But it can't be helped. We have to move on, and our ride is here."

"We get to ride?" Shino queried, confused.

"What do you mean, Master?" Neji asked.

"We're joining a caravan," Genma explained to them. "It's going the same way we are, for the moment."

"A _caravan_?" repeated Ino disbelievingly.

"But caravans are so _slow_, Master," Neji pointed out. "Master Kakashi said we have to go to Konohagakure as fast as possible."

"We have to get there," Genma agreed, "and we have to not get killed while we're getting there. Traveling this way will remove suspicion from us."

"Why?" asked Shino.

"Because we're not going to be ninja." Genma took off his vest and headband and rolled them safely into his bedroll. "We're just going to be ordinary travelers, looking for a ride."

"But you're a _shinobi_," Neji said emphatically. "We _all_ are."

"That's right, we are," Genma answered with approval. "But for now, we're going to hide who we really are. That means no drawing weapons. No talking about fighting, training, or the shinobi way. If anyone asks you who you are, just maintain that you're a traveler looking for work. Make up a false name—and _don't_ borrow any names from Konoha, especially clan names. Those might be well-known in the Land of Stones through their intel and such. Unless I tell you otherwise, from here on in you're just kids traveling with me. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Master!" the three of them answered together.

"All right, follow me." He led them carefully down into the dell, through the scrub so nobody would see them coming. Casually, he approached one of the wagons near the center of the line and began to walk alongside it. A man sitting inside it with the merchandise peered at them.

"Are you new here?" he called.

"Yes, we're just travelers hoping to hitch a ride with you," Genma replied. The man shrugged.

"You'll have to ask the leader. He's up front, first wagon, has a polka-dot hat. You can't miss him."

"Thanks." Genma walked a little faster to catch up to the lead wagon, the kids trotting behind him. He went to the colorfully-dressed man driving the horses and repeated his request.

"Well, we could use some fetch-and-carriers," the leader mused aloud. "Could you load and unload the wares? It's pretty heavy work."

"I think I can manage," Genma said with an easy smile.

"We'll do whatever work you want us to, sir!" Ino promised. The leader grinned at her.

"Aren't you cute. You might even join the dancers." He waved at Genma. "Okay, you've got yourself a job."

"We'll work for room and board," Genma told him.

"That's what I like to hear," the leader said. "I'm Captain Satoo, by the way."

"Call me Kobayashi," Genma introduced himself.

"Fuben," said Neji.

"Chiisana," Shino mumbled.

"And I'm Tomoko," Ino announced with an adorable grin. She was really getting into this alias thing.

"We're headed east," Genma went on. "Can we ride with you as long as you're going our way?"

"Sure you can. Our circuit goes all the way to Iwa's eastern border," the captain explained. "Is that too far for you?"

"No, that'll be fine."

"Well, right now we're on the move. We should arrive in the next town in about an hour. I'll put you to work then. For now . . . pick a wagon, any wagon," Satoo offered them.

"I want to ride with the animals!" Ino squealed right away. She raced back to the sixth wagon in line and got on board. Genma and the boys joined her. Hearing the growls and snorts from within, Genma wagered that they might have picked a better spot to ride. Still, their deception had gone off without a hitch. That was the important thing.

**A/N: I obviously don't know a scrap of Japanese; thus the fake names in this chapter are abysmal. I chose them as a bit of a joke, and I apologize if they're just too crazy.**


	24. Too Many Obstacles

There were just too many obstacles between them and Konoha. Team _Tora_ were forever being forced to hide or duck out of sight, once for as long as two hours. Finding places to camp at night wasn't easy. And there had already been several skirmishes with Iwa shinobi. Iruka had been careful not to kill anyone, but he didn't know how much longer he could go on leaving knocked-out ninja in his wake. Soon, they were bound to get suspicious. Iruka could only go on leading his little cell, like a foursome of fugitives. He did his very best to make all the right decisions for them. Yet he couldn't shake the feeling that none of them were going to make it to the Land of Fire without being captured, or killed.


	25. I Hate Climbing

Three days into her journey, Kurenai gradually began to feel a swell of warm feeling for Kakashi. The stoic ninja must have a secret weakness for girls. Of the four adults, he had surely sent her and her team on the safest route. They hadn't met a single enemy ninja. That was something to be immensely grateful for. The interminable running she'd had to do, plus continuously carrying one or two of the children so that they could rest, definitely took its toll on her body. But she ignored the pain, and when she came to the foot of a mountain range, she smiled with anticipation. This was the last thing that stood between them and home.

The children didn't share her optimism. Sakura was already shivering from the cold. Choji bit his lip, and Shikamaru gawked openly at the towering mountains. "You're telling me we have to _climb_ those?" he asked incredulously.

"I hate climbing," Sakura whimpered.

"This is the last climb we have to make," Kurenai promised them. "After that, it's not far to the Leaf Village at all." She patted their heads. "Come on, we can do it! We're ninja!" She tied four kunai knives with line and threw them several meters upward. They lodged in a crack in the rock high above the team's heads. Kurenai tied one line around each person's waist. "All right, let's go!" she ordered. Shikamaru groaned but began to pull himself up. Kurenai lifted first Choji, then Sakura, as high up as she could to give them a head start. Once the children were above her, she began climbing after them.

Digging their toes and fingers into any crevices they could, pulling themselves laboriously up with the drag lines, they made slow but sure progress. For the next hour, Kurenai concentrated on nothing but the assent—and survival. Their ragged breathing filled the still, cold air, and no one said anything except when Kurenai shouted instructions. After struggling far more than the rest of them for countless meters, Sakura began to cry quietly. Her gasps of exertion mingled with her sobs.

"Come on, Sakura, it's not that hard," Shikamaru grunted with impatience. She was always the first one to give in to tears at the Academy. If the girls called her Billboard Brow, the boys called her Crybaby. "Stop crying—it's just a waste of time."

Sakura flinched at his behest, but Kurenai was more gentle. "It's not so easy for us girls," she explained softly as she stopped on the ledge next to her smallest charge. "Boys are stronger, aren't they?" she said to Sakura with a pained smile. "So we have to be strong here." She patted Sakura's chest. "You can do it, Sakura. You're a _kunoichi_." The pink-haired girl nodded haltingly.

"Yes, Master," she squeaked, and began climbing again, her arms shaking from fatigue. Tears still coursed down her cheeks.

Over the next two hours, Kurenai longed to help the children, but she couldn't provide much beyond encouragement. It was impossible for her to carry any of them without putting them in danger. Climbers made their climb alone. As they got more and more exhausted, as they moved more and more slowly, Kurenai pushed them to go faster. Her heart was heavy with all she was making them do. This task belonged to the _chunin_ of Konoha. But there was no alternative. She consoled herself with the fact that it would soon be over.

Despite being notorious as the laziest young student at the Academy, Shikamaru made it to the top first. He collapsed at the entrance of a shallow cave where Kurenai had decided they would spend the night. Seeing his friend finally getting a rest, Choji was spurred on and eagerly pulled himself up the last few decimeters of line. He heaved his chubby body over the ledge and sprawled next to Shikamaru. "Get away from the edge!" Kurenai told them sharply. She shoved Sakura from behind to help her over the top, and the three children, their sides heaving, crawled into the cave. Kurenai came after them, untying the lines and stowing the kunai back in her leg pouch. "Don't leave this cave, any of you. Understand?" she said. They nodded at her, still gasping for air.

"Master, why . . . can't I . . . breathe?" panted Shikamaru. Choji gripped his head, and Sakura's nose was bleeding.

"It's the altitude," Kurenai answered. She was breathless, too. "We've gone up so high . . . that the air is harder to breathe here." She yawned and handed out the last of the pears from her pack. Everyone deserved a treat for their effort today. They all ate hungrily, and finished the meal with bread and water. Not much of a feast.

"Can we . . . light a fire?" Choji asked.

"You know we can't," Kurenai told him patiently. "When we're traveling . . . enemies might see the smoke. Especially up here."

"But it's so _cold_," Shikmaru groused. He and Choji were already nearly on top of each other to keep warm. Sakura shook violently with shivers. Kurenai made a bed for them, padding the stone floor with bedrolls. She tucked the three of them into it and covered them with whatever blankets and spare clothing she could come up with.

"Is that better?" she asked wearily when she'd finished. Sakura nodded silently. "Stay close together . . . and you'll stay warm," she told them.

She sat cross-legged at the entrance to the cave as the moon coursed across the clear sky. The cold went into her very bones. She hadn't dressed for weather like this, and all the extra clothes were now serving as bedclothes. Late into the night, Shikamaru surprised her with a question.

"You're cold, aren't you?" he asked quietly from where he was bedded down. "That's why you're staying awake. If you're cold and go to sleep, you never wake up again." Kurenai smiled a little at his precocious appraisal.

"I have to keep watch," she whispered to him. In the unlikely event that enemies made the approach up the mountainside, she needed to be ready. Also, she wanted to make sure that her three teammates didn't accidentally roll anywhere near the drop-off.

Shikamaru squirmed out of his pile of blankets and padded over to her. He dropped a pair of woolen leggings and a gi-style shirt in her lap. "Wear these, Master. I don't like to see you shivering." He hurried back to his sleeping area and re-buried himself in the bedding. Again, Kurenai smiled as she put on the offered clothes.

She was warmer after that.


	26. Fatal Mistake

Kiba opened his eyes slowly when he heard the guttural growls. They were emanating from Master Kakashi, who was poised on all fours above the three children, shielding them with his body. Sasuke and Hinata stirred and awoke, too. The two of them were confused, but Kiba was tense with fear. Only he understood the nature of these growls. In the canine language, they meant, _Danger_._ Warning_._ Run_. Akamaru's neck fur was standing up. Kakashi bent very close to them and breathed, "The lead ninja is coming. I'll give you an opening. When I tell you to run—you'd better run." He leaped upward and thrust his arms out to deflect two throwing knives, using the gauntlets on the back of his hands. A third knife grazed his cheek and caused blood to trickle down his face. It was the first time Kiba had seen him injured in any way. He gulped. The enemy ninja must be a better fighter than any of them had expected.

Kakashi wiped the blood off with his fingers and smeared it onto the ground. "Thanks for saving me the trouble," he commented as he executed several signs. Slapping the palm of his hand onto the blood smear, he shouted, "Kuchiyose no jutsu—the art of summoning!" Three dogs burst out of nowhere. He pointed Kiba, Hinata, and Sasuke out to them. "One of you for each of them. Guard them with your life." A little pug dog trotted over to Kiba; a retriever joined Hinata; and a collie stationed himself at Sasuke's side.

Dozens more ninja flooded the clearing, all identical, with the same eye patch over their right eyes. They rushed Kakashi without preamble. Eyeing one of them meaningfully, Kakashi began to make _katas_ that the other started to recognize.

"You think I'd forget that jutsu?" he asked. Together, the horde of clones leapt back as Kakashi took a deep breath. "You're not going to get me with it again!"

"No, I'm not," Kakashi confirmed casually. The clones' eyes widened in confusion before a blast of flame overtook them, coming from the opposite direction of Kakashi. Sasuke stood hidden behind a bush, to which he had run while the doppelgangers had made their entrance. Now he was breathing out flames like a dragon, taking out clone after clone. The retriever next to him barked, cheering him on. When he had no air left in his lungs he stopped the attack, panting for breath. "Very good, Sasuke," Kakashi approved. "Looks like you made your own opening." He went on the offensive with sudden, furious speed. Slashing at the remaining clones with shuriken, he barked, "Run!" The three kids and three dogs obediently raced out of the clearing. Kakashi made sure to keep his opponent too busy to give chase. He made two doppelgangers of himself, and the three of him attacked the remaining seven one-eyed clones. They seemed to keep multiplying, though. More of them were always there to replace the ones that fell. Kakashi slashed with shuriken, and threw others to hit his enemies in vital spots. For each Kakashi clone that vanished, at least ten one-eyed doppelgangers were taken out. That was a net gain of twenty, yet when Kakashi stood alone without his clones, his enemy still faced him with thirty-some doppelgangers.

"You're good," Kakashi complimented him. "You have an unusually high amount of chakra, and your chakra control is impressive." He pushed his _hitai-ate_ headband up to uncover his sharingan. "Unfortunately for you, I have a secret weapon. Consider yourself lucky. I only use it on the best opponents."

"So you have heterochromia," the lead clone noted, unimpressed.

"You've never heard of the sharingan?" Kakashi asked with genuine surprise. He stared hard at the clones. There were different levels of chakra among the various doppelgangers, a fact which surprised him further. Uncharacteristically confused, he hesitated without being sure which one to attack first. "Well, you're in for a great show," he said, keeping his tone conversational. He reached down to pull a kunai from his leg pouch. Pouncing like a cat, he drove it into the chest of the clone who had the highest chakra level. That one would be the real enemy.

But Kakashi had struck wrongly. His entire body seized up. The clone became light which flooded into Kakashi. The energy raced through him: he was electrocuted. His knees buckled, and his legs folded under him before he fell to the ground. Through wide, blank eyes he stared up at his enemy.

"Is that the best your 'sharingan' can do?" scoffed another clone. "I'm disappointed."

"A lightning clone?" Kakashi croaked. The ninja's eyebrow went up when he heard Kakashi speak.

"You're still alive?"

"I'm a lightning-type," Kakashi explained to him. "It'll take more than that to kill me."

"But you're weak," concluded the doppelganger. His eye narrowed as he picked up a kunai knife from the battlefield. "This should finish you off." The clone knelt and grabbed Kakashi's collar. Then he grunted with sudden pain. Another kunai had embedded itself in his back. He slumped over and vanished. Hinata stood behind the place where he'd been, her eyes large from fear. It was she who had thrown the knife. Her retriever companion stood stiffly next to her.

Painfully, Kakashi pushed himself to his feet. He went over to Hinata and pulled loose the sash of her pale gi. "Join the boys," he commanded the dog. "We'll be there soon." The retriever loped away, and Kakashi crouched down next to the Hyuga girl. "Get on," he muttered to her. When he had helped her onto his back, he tied her in place with the sash. He steeled himself for a final assault.

"That was an ordinary clone Hinata took out." He began walking among the doppelgangers. Angered by his nonchalance, they jumped toward him. He danced out of their way. "Earth clones, water clones, lightning clones, and normal clones, all at the same time, each imbued with a different level of chakra," he noted, shaking his head. "You're a very talented shinobi," he admitted. "I've never seen anyone with three chakra types before. You've had training—lots of it. But you're the only real ninja in your group. That was the first flaw in your plan." He squinted at the numerous clones as he evaded their onslaught. Unable to find what he was looking for, he went on. "Still, your choice of men was good. You surrounded yourself with teammates who would do anything for you—who would even die for you. Even though they weren't from the shinobi lands, they were good fighters. And your weapons . . . hmm, you forged them, didn't you? Along with your headbands, of course. You must have a fully-outfitted base of operations somewhere outside the shinobi lands. That's where you're operating from—and that's where you're planning to found a new land." The eyes of the clones widened at the same time, and they increased the fury of their attack. Kakashi was kept on his toes trying to avoid them all. He clasped his hands in the _tora kata_ and focused his chakra, putting out the highest speed his body had to offer. Hinata's weight didn't help matters, but at least she wasn't moving as she held on to him with all the strength in her little body. "It would start small, of course; just a few select young shinobi and a barn to train them in," he continued. "They had to be so young that they would eventually forget their homeland and by loyal to you alone. The _dojutsu_ wielders were especially coveted. That's why you decided to come after me personally," he stated, "because I have two of the three eye-jutsu kids."

"I came after you because only _I_ am good enough to defeat you!" snarled three of the clones at once. Kakashi looked sharply in their direction. His sharingan eye picked up what he had been searching for. There was a ninja who had a similar chakra level to the other doppelgangers, but Kakashi could see the barely-detectable flow of energy in his body. It wasn't stationary chakra, like the rest of the look-alikes.

"I don't think so," he said coldly. "You're not enough to beat me. You see, that's where you made your fatal mistake. Your kidnapping may have gone smoothly. You might have eventually trained these kids to be perfect tools for your service, the basis for your new land. But you made one choice that sealed your fate." With an irate cry, the real ninja threw himself at Kakashi. The Copy Ninja's hands were still locked in the hand sign of the _tora_. Turning towards his opponent, he drove his fingers straight into the man's chest. They pierced through skin, muscle, and bone, and stabbed into the ninja's heart.

"You messed with the shinobi of Konoha," he finished. His hands buried in flesh up to his wrists, Kakashi felt the heartbeat cease. The doppelgangers standing around disappeared, or crumbled into dirt, or fell to the ground as water, or dissolved into blue lightning and shot into the sky. Kakashi pulled his hands free, rinsed them in one of the resulting puddles where a clone had been, and covered up his sharingan again. He didn't hesitate or even spare a glance for his enemy's body, but raced straight through the trees to where he could smell the boys and canines. The dogs barked in greeting, and Kiba and Sasuke looked relieved to see that their leader and _kunoichi_ were all right. "I told you to run," he upbraided Hinata as he untied the sash to let her down. "But you put yourself in danger and came back. I don't ever want to catch you disobeying my orders again."

"Y-yes, M-Master. I-I'm sorry, Master," Hinata stammered. "I-it's just that—there was lightning, and you were hurt, and I h-had to . . ."

"You had to come back to protect me," Kakashi finished her sentence. Hinata seemed to realize what the idea of a cadet protecting a _jonin_ sounded like, for she went red and ducked her head. Kakashi nodded slowly. "Good," he praised her. "Now maybe you understand what being a shinobi is all about." Hinata looked up at him with surprise.

"Y-yes, Master," she whispered. "Maybe." Kakashi looked at the other two.

"Why didn't either of you come back?" he demanded with a raised eyebrow.

"Wait, Master," said Sasuke. "Are you yelling at Hinata for coming back, and yelling at us for _not_?" Kakashi chuckled lightly.

"That's not fair!" Kiba spoke up, indignant.

"No, it's not," agreed Kakashi, "but never mind. We're on the border, and our biggest hindrance is now out of the way permanently." He used reverse summoning to send the dogs back from where they came. Jerking his thumb in an easterly direction, he said, "Now let's go home."

**A/N: The "Thousand Years of Death" jutsu is forever shrouded in uncertainty. This chapter was my attempt at portraying what that jutsu actually _does_. Because I really don't believe that it's only used for poking people in the butt.**


	27. But Shinobi Do

Neji and Shino were taciturn like Genma, so the three of them received the grunt work. Genma lifted down crates of food and handicrafts at each of the towns the caravan visited. Shino and Neji helped him unload in whatever way they could. The two boys were working side by side with well-muscled men, but they were strong in their own right, and they held their own. Ino was much too good for such work. She joined the miming troupe and played characters in the stories that were narrated to eager young spectators. Her bright eyes and graceful movements won her the favor of the captain and everyone else in the caravan. It was for that reason that Captain Satoo seemed so disappointed when Genma announced that the four of them would be leaving.

"So soon?" he sighed.

"Hey, don't sell us short—we've been here for a week, maybe more," Genma pointed out. He bowed to the caravan's leader, and the children followed suit. "Thank you for letting us ride with you, Captain."

"My pleasure, Kobayashi," Satoo replied. He waved from his position on the wagon seat. "Good-bye, boys. You did fine work these last few days, and I'm much obliged."

"Good-bye, Captain Satoo!" chimed Ino.

"So long, Tomoko. I think I'll miss you the most," the captain admitted ruefully.

Genma led his team across the border. Once they were out of earshot of the caravan, he informed them, "Okay, gang, we just have to pass through the Land of Grass, and then we're home free."

"Do we have to keep pretending we're not ninja?" Neji asked, the dislike in his voice evident.

"We'll keep up this charade as long as it works," answered Genma. "But at the first sign of trouble, we fight." Neji seemed pleased to hear that.

The sign of trouble came sooner than expected. Team _Mi_ were running through the meadow when Genma sensed someone over the next rise. He held up a finger to warn the children, and they slowed to a walk and climbed casually over the hill. They weren't in luck, though—it was a Kusa ninja who stood in the grass beholding them with a suspicious eye.

"Who might you four be?" he asked warily.

"I'm Kobayashi; this is Chiisana and Fuben; and the girl is Tomoko," Genma lied.

"And you're not from Kusagakure?" the shinobi asked.

"No, we're just passing through," Genma replied.

"That's a convenient answer," the _Kusanin_ commented, wrinkling his nose. "Because you four don't look like travelers at all."

"Actually, we're farmers. I work the land," Genma told him easily. "These three are learning the trade from me."

"Really?" the grass ninja asked skeptically.

"Yeah! He teaches us all the secrets!" Ino piped up. "Like the five methods of vegetative propagation. There's grafting; budding; tissue culturing; cutting, also called slipping; and—"

"Interesting," the shinobi interrupted without interest.

"Tomoko is my best student," Genma went on, but the Kusa shinobi didn't seem to be listening. He looked Genma and the others up and down.

"You know, farmers don't normally take on more than one apprentice at a time. But shinobi do. In fact, it's very common for them to teach by threes." His lip curled in scorn. "The boy's gi seems more suited to fighting than hoeing, wouldn't you agree? And you, 'Kobayashi,' are wearing the black undergarments of a ninja. Don't deny it." He whipped out a kunai knife in a practiced movement. "Now, why don't you show me what's in your bedroll?" Genma pursed his lips and untied the rope around the bedroll on his back. The fabric unrolled, and out of it fell the Konoha vest and _hitai-ate_ leaf headband, along with several kunai and shuriken.

"We're just passing through," Genma said for the second time. "We don't want to fight, and we don't want any trouble."

"Your _presence_ brings trouble!" hissed the _Kusanin_. Their stand-off was interrupted, though, by a commotion from little Shino. He was howling in fear, rolling on the ground, covered with insects.

"Get 'em off me!" he screeched. The grass ninja turned to gape at the boy's predicament. That was all the opening Genma needed. He kicked his foot upward, causing a shuriken that had dropped onto his sandal to be tossed into the air. Genma caught it and swung out with his arm. The flat side of the shuriken made contact with the shinobi's head, knocking him unconscious. Genma rolled the bedroll back up, laughing slightly.

"That was brilliant, kid," he said to Shino. "The Aburame Clan are also known as the Bug Clan, correct?" Shino nodded as the bugs retreated back into his coat. Slipping on his combat vest and gathering up his scattered weapons, Genma said to his charges, "No time for sight-seeing, gang. We have to make it back to Konoha as fast as we possibly can." He beheld them soberly. "Run like the wind."

When Genma started to sprint, the three children kept up with him step for step.


	28. Not Far Now

As soon as dawn broke over the mountainside, Kurenai woke up her teammates. "We have to get moving," she said to them. They shivered and panted as they helped her shove the spare clothing back into her pack and tie up the bedrolls.

"I can't wait . . . to get down from here," Shikamaru grumbled faintly.

"Too bad . . . we can't just slide," joked Choji with a shaky laugh. Kurenai was already hammering four kunai into the nearest crack in the rock, using another kunai knife to drive them in. She tied the lines around the children and then herself.

"All right, now . . . be careful," she advised them. Little by little, continually moving their kunai spikes, they edged themselves sideways around the mountain ledge until they were on the opposite side of the peak. Then they began the descent.

Climbing down, ironically, was even harder than climbing up. To look down for footholds while trying to maintain a white-knuckled handhold, was not an easy task. The three children— and even Kurenai, due to her fatigue—had several slips that amounted to near misses.

Halfway down the mountain, Choji broke the three-point rule, groping with his foot while gripping the rock wall with only a single hand. He missed the lower ledge he had been aiming for and started to slide down the cliff face. His drag line caught him, of course, and Kurenai wasn't very worried. However, Shikamaru's eyes caught something she didn't.

"Choji! Your line is breaking!" he cried out in fear. Kurenai looked up, her heart in her mouth. The line holding Choji up, draped over a sharp bit of protruding rock, was indeed fraying.

"Wh-what do I do?" Choji asked. Before Kurenai could answer, Shikamaru acted. He swung up to Choji from the right and grabbed onto him. The extra weight caused the already-weak line to snap. Holding his friend in his arms, Shikamaru swung freely on the end of his own line.

"Gaaah! A little . . . help over here?" Shikamaru pled. "Choji . . . you're so _heavy_!"

"Don't drop me!" whimpered the Akimichi boy.

"I'm not gonna drop you!" Shikamaru retorted. "What kind of idiot . . . do you think I am?" Trembling from relief, Kurenai climbed back up to them and tied a new drag line around Choji. From then on, she made sure that when the children moved their knives, they secured them in prudent spots.

At long last, they made it to the ground again. Kurenai let them all rest for a few minutes before she scooped up Sakura and Shikamaru and they set off again. "Your turn soon, Choji," she promised the boy who was huffing and puffing, running alongside her. She could only carry two at once provided those two weren't Choji. Shikamaru had been right about his friend's weight. "Not far now," Kurenai panted. "It won't be long before you can see the village." They had finally crossed the border into the Land of Fire.


	29. One of Us Has to Die

Like all borders, the border of the Land of Stones was heavily patrolled. Iruka had been expecting to run into another enemy, but expecting it didn't make it any easier. His muscles already ached from fatigue, and from the look of the Iwa ninja, this fight would not be an easy one.

"What do you think you're doing on our land, Konoha shinobi?" the bearded _Iwanin_ demanded to know.

"Just passing through," Iruka answered steadily. "I'm trying to get back to Konoha, so please let me pass."

"Not gonna happen," the Iwa shinobi flatly informed him. With a resigned grimace, Iruka let Tenten down off his back. He shunted the three children back behind him with one hand as he pulled out a handful of shuriken.

"I don't want to start a fight, but I will if that's what I have to do to get past you."

"Let's see what you've got, Konoha ninja," the Iwa ninja sneered. He leaped forward, battle-hungry. Iruka rushed to meet him and threw a triad of shuriken, which came so close to the opposing ninja's beard that they took off a couple of hairs. Unintimidated, the shinobi continued in his charge until he was brought up short by invisible threads.

"These shuriken have strings attached," Iruka informed him, yanking them taut to fasten the ninja to the trunk of a tree. "That should keep you preoccupied for a while." For the finishing touch, he tied several knots in the line. "Come on, Naruto, Tenten, Lee," Iruka called them over wearily.

"Do we _have_ to run again, Sensei?" moaned Naruto. "My feet hurt. . ."

"That may be, Naruto, but we have to keep going," Iruka told him for what seemed like the hundredth time.

From behind them, the _Iwanin_ spoke. "You're not going anywhere, Konoha ninja. This is child's play!" The twang of snapping wires made Iruka whirl around. The Iwa ninja flexed his arms and broke the strings like spider webs. "My turn now!" He began pulling out kunai knives and throwing them at Iruka without letting up. Iruka barely had time to wrap his arms around all three children and jump out of the way.

The attack was a furious one. The place where Iruka had been standing was showered with a ruthless stream of kunai knives. There must have been fifty of them in all. "Iruka-sensei!" Tenten yelped when she saw the knives embedded in her teacher's forearms. "He got you!"

"I'm fine, Tenten," Iruka reassured her. "Now, listen to me, all of you. I want you to wait until he's completely focused on me, and then run."

"Run where, Sensei?" asked Lee.

"See the sun? It's starting to go down in the west now. Head _away_ from it, to the east. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Sensei!" Tenten and Lee shouted out. Naruto didn't look happy.

"I want to stay with you, Iruka-sensei," he begged.

"I'm your leader, and you do as I say, Naruto," Iruka said firmly. "Do you hear me?" Naruto let out a groan of reluctance. Iruka held their gazes for a moment before going to confront his opponent. "You want to fight me so badly?" He pulled out the kunai from his forearms and tossed them onto the grass. The gauntlet had been thrown. "Come and get me."

Tenten, Lee, and Naruto watched from behind the tree where Iruka had left them. Their teacher held his own at first. He battled the Iwa ninja blow for blow, and they seemed evenly matched. But Iruka was fatigued from the long journey. The other shinobi began to gain the upper hand. More and more of his attacks scored hits on Iruka.

"Well," Lee whispered hesitantly as his master's body was thrown to the ground, "the enemy _is_ focused on Iruka-sensei now."

"Yeah. W-we'd better run, like he said," Tenten agreed without much conviction. They frowned at one another, and each of them grabbed one of Naruto's arms before he could protest. The three of them ran in the opposite direction of the fighting, in the opposite direction of the sun, obedient to their master. But little Naruto had no intention of being obedient. He wrenched his arms free of their grasp and yelled at them angrily.

"If you guys wanna run when Iruka-sensei is in trouble, then _do_ it!" He pointed back the way they'd come. "_I'm_ going back to help him!" Turning on his heel, he raced back toward the battle scene. Lee and Tenten shared a look of relief.

"Naruto is right," declared Lee.

"Yeah—let's go," Tenten agreed. They caught up to Naruto and overtook him without much trouble.

"Don't try to stop me!" the Uzumaki boy bellowed.

"We are here to help, Naruto!" Lee cried. He reached the clearing first, where the Iwa shinobi was beating Iruka around like a training dummy. Lee charged straight in and attacked with a combo of five different kicks, yelling, "Feel the power of the Hidden Leaf Village!" For his age, the attack was marvelous; but for the _Iwanin_, it was hardly threatening. He blocked Lee's feet with one arm, still holding on to Iruka with the other.

"Really? I don't feel a thing," he remarked dryly. Striking out with the butt of a kunai, he hit Lee in the head and sent him flying.

"Lee!" Tenten cried. She went on the offensive next. "First my master, now my teammate?" she shouted at her enemy. "You'll pay for this!" She was holding four kunai knives, two in each hand, the blades pointing out from either side of her clenched fist. It made her look as if she were holding two double-bladed knives instead of four. Light and quick on her feet, she lashed out at the man with her blades, darting in and out to keep attacking and dodging.

"Who's gonna make me? You, kid?" the Iwa shinobi asked, his voice skeptical. When Tenten launched herself at him again, he suddenly kicked her in the stomach and sent her sprawling. "This fight isn't for brats like you," he snorted, turning back to Iruka. He hoisted the Konoha ninja off his feet by his ponytail. Iruka yelled in pain, yet he was still coherent when he moaned,

"Lee . . . Tenten . . . didn't I tell you to get out of here? C-cross the border! It's not far . . ."

"No one's crossing over today," the Iwa ninja growled. "I'll kill you all where you stand." He bashed Iruka's head against a tree trunk.

"No, you won't," Iruka contradicted him between gasps for breath. "Because I have to protect them, and I will—even if one of us has to die."

"Oh, _one_ of us will die, all right," the enemy ninja concurred. Again, he slammed Iruka's head against the unyielding wood. Blood ran down into the _Konohanin_'s eyes.

Naruto was sitting on the branch of that very same tree. He stared at the one-sided fight with anguish before remembering what he was supposed to be doing. Pulling off his T-shirt, he leaped off the branch without hesitation. He landed smack-dab on the Iwa shinobi's shoulders and shoved his shirt over the man's head.

"Don't hurt my sensei!" he howled. The earth ninja grabbed Naruto's light hair, pulled him off, and drop-kicked him to the ground. Meantime, Master Iruka took advantage of the _Iwanin_'s temporary blindness and punched him right in the nose. The ninja let out a howl of pain, which Iruka cut off when he used a kunai to slit his enemy's throat.

"Don't hurt my student," Iruka growled. Both of the men fell at the same time. Lee, Tenten, and Naruto rushed over to them.

"Iruka-sensei? Sensei? Sensei!" Naruto repeated over and over, pushing against Iruka's shoulder. "Why won't he get up?" he asked his teammates. Tenten bent down and pressed her ear against her master's chest.

"I think he's okay," she decided. "He's just tired, maybe."

"But we still have to get across the border," Lee pointed out. "If he won't wake up, then . . . what do we do?" Naruto answered his question.

"Easy," he said with a grin. "He carries us all the time, right? So we'll carry him."

It was much easier said than done. Lee and Tenten, groaning from the effort, got Iruka propped up and slung his arms over their shoulders. Naruto stood in the middle, bearing the weight of Iruka's torso, trying to hold his master's drooping head up. Shuffling through the woods, making agonizingly slow progress, the three little children bore their immense burden bravely. They supported his weight for more than a kilometer. It was the most grueling thing any of them had ever had to do.

But they made it across the border.


	30. Welcoming Party

As he neared the Hidden Leaf Village, carrying two boys under his arms and Hinata on his back, Kakashi heard howls in the distance. "Looks like you've got a welcoming party," he commented to Kiba, who was half-drowsing despite his uncomfortable position. "Just don't make me a part of it." He set the Inuzuka boy down and continued on his way.

"Huh?" Kiba mumbled blearily. He blinked his eyes open to see Kakashi in the distance—and a pack of dogs hurtling toward him. "Aah! Wait, hang on!" he pleaded. They swamped him with wet tongues as he giggled. The largest, a hulking German shepherd, didn't seem so cheerful. She growled as she lifted Kiba up by the hood on his jacket. A patchy husky picked up Akamaru by his scruff. The canines carried him all the way back to the front gate, where, it seemed, everyone was waiting for them. Kakashi was already there, speaking in an undertone to an Anbu member. Genma shot in just then: half the teams were home now. The matriarch of the Inuzuka family grabbed her son from the shepherd dog and shook him furiously.

"Do you know how much trouble you've caused everyone?" she screeched at him.

"W-w-w-w-wait, Mom, p-p-puh-lease!" Kiba implored her as his jaw rattled. "I-I-I didn't _try_ to get kidnapped!"

"Nedi! 'Nata!" two-year-old Hanabi crowed from nearby. Hinata hugged her.

"Hi, Hanabi," she whispered into her sister's ear. To her father she stammered, "H-hello, Father." Neji greeted Hiashi much more formally, bowing to him and murmuring,

"Greetings, Lord Hiashi." The face of the leader of the Hyuga clan bore no expression, but he surprised the children by hunkering down and wrapping his arms around them. Hinata clung to him; Neji squirmed out of his hug. Hiashi stood once more, and Hanabi held her arms up to Neji. He scooped her up, and Lord Hiashi led the three of them home.

Shino's father said not a word, but he lifted his son into his arms so gently that he didn't need to say anything. Masters Inoichi, Shikaku, and Choza were standing together; but only one of them had the knowledge that his child was safe and sound.

"Ino," he murmured, embracing his daughter. She squeaked with laughter as his long ponytail tickled her nose. In the midst of his contentment, Inoichi spared words of consolation for his friends. "Don't worry," he said to the two men beside him. "Choji and Shikamaru should be here soon."

"We couldn't separate those two," Kakashi told them when he heard Master Inoichi speaking. "I sent them with Master Kurenai. She had the longest route, so she should be the last one here." He peered at the front of the gate. "Speaking of which . . . where's Iruka?"

"He's not back yet," Genma muttered to him.

"What?" Kakashi rubbed his face mask with unease. "He should've been the _first_ one here."

From the shadows in the corner, a delicate-looking young shinobi stepped out. Sasuke's eyes lit up when he saw him.

"Big brother!" he exclaimed, running over to him. Itachi grabbed his brother's wrists before Sasuke could get very far. He studied Sasuke's face and reached out to touch the boy's cheek with a long finger.

"Burns," he said quietly. "You used the flame jutsu." He cocked his eyebrow. "Sasuke, you know it's not supposed to burn you when you use it. You have to control your chakra better." He turned away and waved his brother along. "Come on. Father is out on a mission, but he'll be home soon. Mother's waiting at home. She's frantic with worry." Sasuke stamped his foot.

"Big brother!" he said again, indignantly. Itachi turned around with a question in his eyes. Sasuke slammed right into him and wrapped his arms around his brother's waist. "I missed you," he mumbled into Itachi's navel. A ghost of a smile crossed Itachi's face. He ruffled his little brother's hair.

"It's nice to see you, too, Sasuke."

**A/N: So, the "hulking German shepherd" is supposed to be Kiba's mom's dog-Kuromaru.**


	31. Sensei

Iruka opened his eyes long after the sun had set. The three children were still awake and sitting around his prone form. "You three. . ." Ignoring the pain shooting up his arms, he pushed himself up into a sitting position. "What do you think you were doing, coming back to the battle?" His voice rose in anger, and Lee and Tenten flinched. "I specifically ordered you to get yourselves out of there, but you disregarded my orders and came back. You put yourselves all in danger!"

"But Iruka-sensei, you might have _died_ if we had left!" Lee pointed out earnestly.

"And you _all_ might have died, because you disobeyed me!" Iruka snapped back. "It's my job to protect you! How can I do that if you won't _listen_ to me?" Tenten and Lee had their faces bowed in shame. Naruto climbed into Iruka's lap and wrapped his arms around his master as far as they could reach.

"Sensei," he murmured simply. Iruka felt his resolve to remain angry with them weakening. It was hard to stay mad at Uzumaki Naruto.

"Naruto," he whispered. "You couldn't wait for me to start yelling at you again, could you?" He got up and went about spreading out makeshift beds for them all. After doing that, he set up a complicated system of lines above the sleeping spots. He looped the strings over tree branches and bushes and secured them to the handles of kunai knives, which he drove into the ground like tent stakes. The end result was an invisible web hovering about half a meter above where the team would be sleeping. "Now nobody can sneak up on us while we sleep," Iruka explained its purpose to them. To get to their bedrolls, Tenten and Lee scooted under the wire on their backs. Iruka wormed over to them with the army crawl, and Naruto crawled in on his hands and knees. "Don't get up, now, or you'll disturb the wires," Iruka warned them. He grinned then and teased, "Although _you_ might be able to stand up without any trouble, eh, Naruto?"

"Hmm?" Naruto mumbled. Realizing what Iruka was implying, he put his hands on his hips even while he lay on his back. "Hey!" He began to get up to show his master how tall he really was. Iruka laughed, swept the boy off his feet again, and laid him down.

"Go to sleep, Naruto."


	32. Till Morning

Late into the night, Kurenai arrived in Konohagakure, carrying her _kunoichi_ teammate and trailed by two exhausted boys. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio had been waiting together for their safe return. "Choji!" Master Choza called out as Master Shikaku yelled,

"Shikamaru!"

"Pa!" cried Choji.

"Dad!" exclaimed Shikamaru at the same time. They raced to their fathers and leaped into the men's arms while Inoichi looked smilingly on, holding a sleeping Ino in his arms.

"_Shikamaru_!" came the scream of someone Shikamaru was much less eager to see: his mother. She stormed over to them, looking positively irate. Shikamaru gulped and tried to climb onto his dad's shoulder to get away from her. Master Shikaku laughed and lifted his son down into her arms. "Shikamaru . . ." she repeated, her voice wavering. He was astounded to see tears on her cheeks. She hugged him and stroked his hair. "I'm glad you're home."

Sakura's parents thanked Kurenai profusely as they took Sakura from her. Her father wrapped strong arms around her, and her mother showered her with kisses. Sakura clung to them both, weary but contented.

Kakashi still stood in front of the gate as the families trailed off to their houses. "Iruka's still not back yet," he growled to Kurenai. "Typical of him to make me wait."

"Give him till morning," Kurenai urged him in an undertone. "Then we can go out searching for him." Kakashi scanned the surrounding forest with a narrowed eye. He wasn't half as worried, though, as the parents of Tenten and Lee. They had been waiting by the Fire Gate all day, not even taking a break to eat. They paced up and down, and Tenten's mother, curled in the corner of the village wall, cried softly.

"They'll be here soon," Kakashi promised them without knowing if it was true or not. He muttered, "Hear me, Iruka? You'd _better_ be here soon."


	33. Won't Take Us Long

Every muscle in Master Iruka's body protested against his movement as he squirmed out from under the web the following morning. He pulled out a skin of water, which he had been soaking rice in since the previous afternoon. He scooped the grains out of the water and put them into bowls. "Come on, team, get up," he called. Naruto sat up without hitting the strings and inched himself out. Once Lee and Tenten had scooted out, too, Iruka handed them the bowls of food which would serve as their breakfast.

"Aaaaw, cold rice _again_?" Naruto whined. "We _always_ have to eat this stuff!" Iruka hungrily drank the remainder of the water in the skin: whatever minute nutrition it might provide him was sorely needed.

"I can't build a fire, Naruto," he explained yet again. "Then someone might know we're here. You're just going to have to make due."

"It is crunchy," Lee said of the distasteful slop.

"_And_ gross," Naruto joined in. Iruka's temper flared.

"You eat it all—both of you!" he barked. "I don't want to hear another word until it's gone!" The three meekly munched their unappetizing meal in silence. When his bowl was empty, Naruto demanded,

"Sensei, why don't _you_ have to eat it, huh?" Iruka sighed. He was aching to be able to eat the food his students had just choked down, but he wasn't about to tell any of them how hungry he truly was. Instead he held up a small pill for them to see.

"Because I have this—a military rations pellet." He popped the pill into his mouth and swallowed it, silently pleading with his body to take the abuse and keep going. When the pellets were used in place of normal food, they actually did more harm than good. But Iruka needed a source of quick strength.

"I wish _I_ had one of those," Naruto complained. Resisting the urge to bellow at the boy, Iruka cut through the lines he had strung. He reeled them into a tangled mess and shoved the ball of them into his bedroll. Tenten helped him roll the bedrolls back up while Lee and Naruto rinsed the bowls in a shallow pool.

"Iruka-sensei?" Tenten said quietly. "You didn't eat anything yesterday, either, except those pills. Aren't you hungry?"

Their journey had taken them longer than any of them had anticipated. As their rations had been dwindling for some time, Iruka had been eating less and less to save food for his team. Finally, the night before last, he had stopped eating altogether. Tenten had been the only one to notice. "Our food has run out," he admitted to her. "So we have to hurry to Konoha." When she stared up at him, anxious, he added, "Don't worry. It won't take us long to cross through Waterfall. Then we'll be home."

Master Iruka's consoling words were a half-lie. It took Team _Tora_ all day to get halfway through Waterfall territory. To make matters worse, he ran into a ninja cell near the Village Hidden in the Waterfall. The four men crouched for battle, brandishing kunai and shuriken.

"State your business, shinobi of Konoha," the cell leader commanded him.

"I'm traveling to the Land of Fire," rasped Iruka. This was it. There was no way he could fight four elite ninja in his condition and hope to win. This was where they got captured or killed. He pulled out a scroll with one hand and a handful of kunai with the other. "I only want to pass through your land uncontested. However, I'll fight if you force me to." He knew he didn't look at all impressive, with half-closed eyes, Naruto on his back, and Tenten and Lee huddled behind him. Yet something in his appearance seemed to affect the leader of the Waterfall cell. He gazed at Iruka for a long moment, then sheathed his weapons.

"Go on your way, Konoha shinobi," he said, his voice quiet. The other men seemed taken aback, but they too put away their weaponry. They stepped back to let him pass, and Iruka warily made his way through between them. He was expecting a trap, and he turned to walk backwards so that he could continue to face the men. None of the four moved. When Iruka had left them far in the distance, he turned around again and started running. They never pursued him.

He didn't stop to eat or rest. None of the children could keep up with his unrelenting pace, and soon he was carrying all three of them. His feet pounded without stopping, and his body ached from the extra weight. Iruka knew he could never put out this kind of effort without the pellets to bolster his stamina. He also knew that, with all the demands placed upon it, his body would eventually give out. He just hoped it would hold together until they passed the Konoha border.

All night he continued to run, making a last, desperate effort to get home.


	34. They're Back!

"Kakashi!" yipped Pakkun, ablaze with uncharacteristic excitement. "I smell 'em! They're _back_!" His bark was met with exclamations of joy from the frantic parents standing around. Master Kakashi stood in front of the Fire Gate with his arms folded. When he saw Iruka coming, his eye opened wider. With one kid on his back and two in his arms, Iruka was running hard and fast. His head was down and his eyes were closed.

"Iruka, hold it!" Kakashi shouted at him. Coming to a gradual halt, Iruka opened glazed eyes and stared at Kakashi without much comprehension. Kakashi held his thumb up. "You're home."

"Oh. Good," Iruka moaned. He set the children down and fell heavily onto his side. Blood trickled from his mouth. Tenten's parents both tried to hug her at once, resulting in her being squished between them. Lee's father tossed him up into the air over and over again, both of them laughing. No one spared a glance for Naruto. He was on his knees by Iruka's side, staring down at his sensei in distress.

"Well done," Kakashi murmured to the _chunin_, lifting Iruka in his arms and carrying him through the gate. Naruto trotted behind them.

"He'll be okay, right? Right, Master Kakashi?" he asked in concern.

"I'll . . . be fine . . . Naruto," Iruka wheezed out. Kakashi carried him to the medics' headquarters, Naruto scampering in their wake.


	35. Failed Plan

"Every one of the children and their rescuers made it back to the Land of Fire safely," the intel shinobi announced crisply. Kusa's leader nodded, unsurprised.

"It was a failed plan from the start," he remarked coolly. The intel ninja cocked his head in puzzlement.

"You speak so dismissively, sir. After all, the team leader _was_ from Kusa, and you _did_ give him your backing."

"I gave him my _approval_, not my _support_," the grass leader corrected him. He shook his head. "But the plan was foolish. No one arouses the fury of the Konoha shinobi and lives to tell about it."

= The End =

**A/N: Yep, it's really the end now. Again, please review and tell me what you think/like/dislike!**


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